From 5d380f8d144015212f165c714cb2afb3abc437b8 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Jarek Potiuk <potiuk@apache.org>
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 2026 14:01:16 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] feat(contributor-growth): ask the maintainer for the
 addresses people post from

Contributors often post to the project list from an address they never
commit with, or one the list rewrites to "Name via <list>". The
community signals then attribute nothing to them, and the brief reads
as if they never posted.

community-signals now reads maintainer-confirmed mailing_list addresses
from contributor-identities.md in the personal layer, and for anyone
still without a confirmed address with posts in the window proposes
possible matches in both directions: a display-name search, and best
guesses over every sender in the window. The maintainer accepts or
rejects each one (every row defaults to reject); accepted ones are
recorded in the identity file after the maintainer confirms the diff,
so later runs ask only about people who still have none.

Generated-by: Claude Opus 5
---
 docs/contributor-growth/README.md             |  2 +-
 .../skills/candidate-screen/SKILL.md          |  4 ++--
 .../skills/identity-map/sources.md            |  4 ++++
 .../skills/nomination/SKILL.md                |  2 +-
 .../skills/nomination/community-signals.md    | 22 +++++++++++++++++--
 5 files changed, 28 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/docs/contributor-growth/README.md b/docs/contributor-growth/README.md
index 1f5842e07..5089d7478 100644
--- a/docs/contributor-growth/README.md
+++ b/docs/contributor-growth/README.md
@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ says which file is missing.
 
 | File | What it carries | Read by |
 |---|---|---|
-| [`contributor-identities.md`](../../plugins/magpie-setup/templates/contributor-identities.md) | The project's community channels, and confirmed mappings from each contributor's GitHub handle to their Slack, Discord, mailing-list, and social-media handles. Written by `contributor-identity-map` after a maintainer confirms each one. | `committer-onboarding`, `identity-map` |
+| [`contributor-identities.md`](../../plugins/magpie-setup/templates/contributor-identities.md) | The project's community channels, and confirmed mappings from each contributor's GitHub handle to their Slack, Discord, mailing-list, and social-media handles. Written by `contributor-identity-map` after a maintainer confirms each one. | `committer-onboarding`, `identity-map`, `nomination` |
 | [`issue-tracker-config.md`](../../plugins/magpie-setup/templates/issue-tracker-config.md) | Tracker URL, project key, auth model, default query templates. | `activity-sweep`, `calibrate`, `contributor-to-committer`, `nomination`, `sentiment` |
 | [`pmc-roster.md`](../../plugins/magpie-setup/templates/pmc-roster.md) | Who is binding. Read wherever a vote is counted or a PMC-only action is gated. | `candidate-screen`, `nomination` |
 
diff --git a/plugins/magpie-contributor-growth/skills/candidate-screen/SKILL.md b/plugins/magpie-contributor-growth/skills/candidate-screen/SKILL.md
index e7844b4d0..43cd6ce0b 100644
--- a/plugins/magpie-contributor-growth/skills/candidate-screen/SKILL.md
+++ b/plugins/magpie-contributor-growth/skills/candidate-screen/SKILL.md
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ argument-hint: "[target:committer|pmc|both] [window:6m] [end:YYYY-MM-DD]"
 capability: capability:stats
 surface_hash: sha256:a1767d466ee963d1
 license: Apache-2.0
-measured_tokens: 3994
+measured_tokens: 4042
 ---
 
 <!-- SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
@@ -196,7 +196,7 @@ For each person who survived the pre-filter:
 1. Run `contributor-metrics fetch` and `score` exactly as [`contributor-to-committer` Step 2 and Step 2a](../contributor-to-committer/SKILL.md#step-2--fetch-contributor-activity) do, confirming pushback candidates on meaning.
    `score` computes adjusted counts — data about the person's own activity, not a score of the person.
 2. A metric fed by a stream in `caps_hit` is a minimum; the report says so.
-3. Collect community signals per [`community-signals.md`](../nomination/community-signals.md) and resolve the person's name per [`real-names.md`](../nomination/real-names.md).
+3. Collect community signals per [`community-signals.md`](../nomination/community-signals.md), including its step that asks the maintainer for the addresses people post from ([Ask the maintainer for addresses](../nomination/community-signals.md#ask-the-maintainer-for-addresses)) — ask once for everyone, after measuring — and resolve the person's name per [`real-names.md`](../nomination/real-names.md).
 
 Everyone measured goes into the report.
 Do not compare anyone's counts with the floors, count floors met or missed, or select a subset: the pre-filter in Step 2 is the only place the floors are used.
diff --git a/plugins/magpie-contributor-growth/skills/identity-map/sources.md b/plugins/magpie-contributor-growth/skills/identity-map/sources.md
index 2c3f354e1..9e22e5c6a 100644
--- a/plugins/magpie-contributor-growth/skills/identity-map/sources.md
+++ b/plugins/magpie-contributor-growth/skills/identity-map/sources.md
@@ -146,6 +146,10 @@ identities:
         grade: self-declared
       discord:
         status: ask-contributor    # confirmed channel, handle not yet shared
+      mailing_list:
+        addresses: ["priya@example.org"]   # posting addresses not seen on her commits
+        source: maintainer
+        grade: maintainer-confirmed
     confirmed_by: jmclean
     confirmed_on: 2026-09-28
 ```
diff --git a/plugins/magpie-contributor-growth/skills/nomination/SKILL.md b/plugins/magpie-contributor-growth/skills/nomination/SKILL.md
index b5e15792b..8779777fb 100644
--- a/plugins/magpie-contributor-growth/skills/nomination/SKILL.md
+++ b/plugins/magpie-contributor-growth/skills/nomination/SKILL.md
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ when_to_use: |
   assess a contributor.
 argument-hint: "<github-handle> [window:Nm] [target:committer|pmc]"
 capability: capability:stats
-surface_hash: sha256:d78eb556cf43aa79
+surface_hash: sha256:d088479a32dcc0cf
 license: Apache-2.0
 measured_tokens: 5318
 ---
diff --git a/plugins/magpie-contributor-growth/skills/nomination/community-signals.md b/plugins/magpie-contributor-growth/skills/nomination/community-signals.md
index b1933f76b..8caa89b0b 100644
--- a/plugins/magpie-contributor-growth/skills/nomination/community-signals.md
+++ b/plugins/magpie-contributor-growth/skills/nomination/community-signals.md
@@ -35,10 +35,28 @@ A mailing-list address, chat account, or social account counts as the contributo
 1. the address appears as an author email on the contributor's own commits to `<upstream>`;
 2. the organization's people directory ties it to the contributor (ASF: `mcp__apache-projects__get_person`);
 3. the account is linked from the contributor's own GitHub profile **and** links back to that GitHub profile — a one-way link proves only that the contributor pointed at the account, not that it is theirs;
-4. the maintainer running the skill confirms it.
+4. the maintainer running the skill confirms it — in this run (see [Ask the maintainer for addresses](#ask-the-maintainer-for-addresses)), or earlier, as a channel recorded with `confirmed_by` in `<project-config>/contributor-identities.md` in the personal layer.
 
 A chat or social profile that names the contributor's GitHub handle is that account's own claim — anyone can write it — so on its own it is not a confirmation (`tools/chat` `resolve_user` → `confirmed_by: "profile"` means exactly that claim).
-It, and anything else — a similar display name, a matching first name, a guess from an email address — goes into a *possible match, not used* list shown to the maintainer, and contributes nothing.
+It, and anything else — a similar display name, a matching first name, a guess from an email address — goes into a *possible match, not used* list shown to the maintainer, and contributes nothing until the maintainer confirms it.
+
+### Ask the maintainer for addresses
+
+Contributors often post from an address they never commit with — a work address, or one whose `From` header the list rewrites (`Name via <list>`).
+Before collecting list signals, read `contributor-identities.md` from the personal layer and add every `mailing_list` address recorded there with `confirmed_by`.
+Then, for each contributor with no confirmed address, or whose confirmed addresses have no messages in the window:
+
+1. Find *possible matches* in both directions:
+   - search `<dev-list>` and `<users-list>` in the window for senders whose display name matches a name the contributor uses (profile name, commit author name, directory name);
+   - for contributors still without a match, list every distinct sender in the window and make best guesses — name order and transliteration variants, initials, an address local part resembling the handle or name, a domain matching the company on their profile — graded *strong*, *plausible* or *weak*, leaving out senders already confirmed for someone else.
+   Each possible match shows its address (or *rewritten*, when the list hid it), the display name, the number of messages, one example link, and why it was proposed.
+2. Show the possible matches to the maintainer, one table per contributor, every row defaulting to **reject**, and ask them to accept or reject each and to add any address they know.
+   Never accept a row on the maintainer's behalf, and never attribute a message from an unaccepted address.
+3. Propose the diff to `contributor-identities.md` in the personal layer — one `mailing_list` channel per accepted address, with `source: maintainer`, `grade: maintainer-confirmed`, `confirmed_by` and `confirmed_on` — in the [identity-file format](../identity-map/sources.md#identity-file-format).
+   Write it only after the maintainer confirms the diff; never to `.apache-magpie-overrides/`.
+4. Collect list signals for the accepted addresses as for any confirmed one.
+
+A later run reads the recorded addresses and asks again only about contributors who still have none.
 
 ---