Session Date/Time: 19 Nov 2025 20:00

RPC

Summary

The RPC interim meeting covered updates on several key initiatives, including pilot programs for GitHub integration and Cramdown RFC submissions, ongoing tooling enhancements, and progress on the new RFC Editor website. A significant discussion point was the plan to centralize reference style guidance for authors. The meeting concluded with no new business raised.

Key Discussion Points

GitHub Roadmap Pilot for Auth48:
- The RPC is offering optional GitHub integration for documents entering the Auth48 queue.
- Three participants have opted in so far (two using Markdown, one using XML).
- More participants are being sought for November and December.
RFC XML Vocabulary Updates:
- Review is underway for vocabulary issues across four existing repositories.
- Issues are being migrated to a new dedicated rfc-xml repository.
- Over 200 XML-related issues are being processed.
Cramdown RFC Submission Format Support:
- Cramdown RFCs are now accepted for entry into the queue.
- Currently, 15 documents in the queue are using this format, with 3 in Auth48.
- Space remains for more participants in November.
- A preliminary status report on the pilot's progress will be provided after the Auth48 documents are published.
SVG Guidance Updates:
- draft-editorial-rswg-svg-and-rfcs is in the queue.
- The RPC is starting updates to SVG guidance, which will necessitate corresponding updates to xml2rfc, svgcheck, and ID-NITS tools to ensure proper author feedback.
Tooling Updates:
- XML2RFC and Self-Hosted Fonts: xml2rfc has been updated to correctly display bold text in recent RFCs. Older RFC HTML files will undergo a surgical edit to address this issue before IETF 125.
- Purple (Queue Management System): Development is focused on the UI for final review approvals, email dispatch, and RFC number assignment. Work is also progressing on APIs between Purple, the new RFC Editor website, and the Data Tracker.
New RFC Editor Website:
- Positive feedback was received from over 30 individuals at IETF 124, with some bugs identified and comments on font size/margins.
- Further beta tests are planned.
- The plan for bulk RFC file access is to transition to R-sync only, discontinuing tar and zip files due to significantly lower usage of the latter (over 600 R-syncs/day versus less than 20 tar/zip accesses/day). No concerns were raised regarding this change.
DraftForge: An alpha version of the new editing software is available, though it has not been updated since the last meeting.
Document Work Updates: Editors provided status reports on documents in edit, Auth, Auth48, and recently published states.
- A pilot document highlighted the distinction between Markdown and XML updates, with a suggestion to emphasize doing as much as possible in Markdown.
Reference Management:
- An initiative is underway to create a centralized page on authors.ietf for reference style guidance, consolidating information currently spread across RFCs (7322, 7322bis), the online style guide, and the internal RPC wiki. This aims to serve as a single source of truth.
- Discussion arose regarding handling external references, unstable drafts, blog posts, and mixed reference styles, with a suggestion for authors to engage with the RPC earlier when uncertain about reference formatting or classification.
FYI: ACM Open Access Transition: ACM plans to transition to an open access publishing model for most of its publications (journals, conference papers, and related artifacts) starting January 2026.
Queue Statistics: No special issues to report.

Decisions and Action Items

Decision: The new RFC Editor website will offer bulk RFC files exclusively via R-sync, discontinuing support for tar and zip archives.
Action Item: The RPC will continue to seek participants for the GitHub and Cramdown pilot programs.
Action Item: Jean (or designated RPC member) will provide a preliminary readout on the Cramdown pilot's progress once the documents currently in Auth48 are published.
Action Item: Ted will continue work on centralizing reference style guidance on authors.ietf, and consider incorporating advice on early engagement with the RPC for complex reference issues.
Action Item: Surgical edits to older RFC HTML files will be performed to correct bold text display before IETF 125.

Next Steps

Continue gathering feedback and monitoring the progress of the GitHub and Cramdown pilot programs.
Conduct further beta tests for the new RFC Editor website.
Continue development of the Purple queue management system and its APIs.
Advance the update of SVG guidance and related tooling.