EasyCLA FAQs
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Who do I contact to enable my Linux Foundation-hosted project to use EasyCLA?
Open , submit the form describing your requirements and import your existing CLAs.
Why does the Linux Foundation ask contributors of some projects to sign CLAs?
Some project communities have elected to use CLAs as a required step for code contributions. The Linux Foundation wants to ensure that contributions comply with the IP (intellectual property) policies of that project.
What is the difference between a Corporate CLA (CCLA) and an Individual CLA (ICLA)?
Corporate CLA (CCLA)
Purpose: A Corporate CLA is required when you are contributing code on behalf of your employer.
Signer: The individual signing the CCLA must have the authority to enter into legal agreements on behalf of the company. This is often not the contributor.
Approval: After signing a CCLA, your email address must be added to an approved list for the project.
Management: The CCLA manager for your company is responsible for maintaining the approved list.
Individual CLA (ICLA)
Purpose: An individual CLA is used for contributions made by individuals on their behalf rather than on behalf of their employer or another entity.
Signer: The signer of the ICLA owns the rights to the contribution and is directly responsible for it.
How can I contribute to GitHub/Gerrit/GitLab repositories?
If you are an individual contributor, see . If you are a corporate contributor, see for details.
Open the email that you provided while signing the ICLA to check the signed ICLA that was sent from The Linux Foundation. If you have not received the email, you can open a support ticket to have it resent.
Using the Domain Approval Criteria requires less overhead because CCLA signatories and CCLA managers do not need to add and manage numerous employee email addresses.
If your company has already signed a Corporate Contributor License Agreement (CCLA) and you are listed as an approved contributor, you do not need to sign anything further. Just confirm your association with your company when submitting code.
If you are the first contributor from your company, an authorized company representative (the CCLA signatory) must sign the CCLA as part of the EasyCLA onboarding process. Your company may designate you as the CCLA signatory—check with your legal counsel to confirm.
If your company has a signed CCLA but you are not on the approved contributor list, your CCLA manager must add you via EasyCLA before you can contribute.
When I am trying to contribute code under a CCLA, what should I do if my company is not listed?
If my project community has elected to use CLAs as a required step for contributions to their code, do I need to be authorized under a CLA for each project to which I contribute?
Yes, provided that the project has a CLA.
If you are contributing as an individual—you must sign an Individual CLA for each project to which you contribute.
If you are contributing as an employee of a company, your company's CCLA signatory must sign a Corporate CLA.
Do I have to sign a CLA every time I contribute code to a project?
If you have already signed CLA for a project, then you don't need to sign every time to contribute to the project. Signing a CLA for a project covers all code contributions to that project. You may, however, need to sign additional CLAs if you choose to contribute to other projects that require CLAs.
Your ICLA will be emailed to the email address you provided when signing it, as soon as you sign it. If you did not receive the email, you can open a support ticket to have it resent.
(Individual Contributors) Wait for the few seconds or refresh the page to get your EasyCLA status updated.
Why does EasyCLA redirect and update a previously opened PR instead of the one I performed the signature on?
When there are two or more opened PRs in the same repository, during the signature process, EasyCLA will always redirect and update the earliest opened PR. Once the signature has been completed, you can add a "/easycla" comment on the other PRs to trigger the EasyCLA bot and update your authorization status for each open PR.
The cla/linuxfoundation check on my PR for a Kubernetes repo is not marked as passed after signing the CNCF CLA through EasyCLA?
Kubernetes repositories are in the process of migrating from CLA v1 (cla/linuxfoundation check) to EasyCLA (EasyCLA check). During this migration, the cla/linuxfoundation check is not being updated even when the users have properly signed the CLA. If the PR has the label "cncf-cla: yes," it means the authorization for the user has been granted. Note that the cla/linuxfoundation check is neither a requirement nor a blocker for merging the PR once all the required labels have been included.
Once the migration has been completed, the cla/linuxfoundation check will be removed.
What is the acceptable email format?
A valid email address with an email prefix and an email domain, for example, abc@mail.com
The allowed characters for the email prefix are letters (a-z), numbers, underscores, periods, and dashes, and an underscore, period, or dash must be followed by one or more letters or numbers, for example: abc-d@mail.com/abc.def@mail.com/abc@mail.com/abc_def@mail.com
The allowed characters for an email domain are letters, numbers, and dashes, and the last portion of the domain must be at least two characters, for example,.org,.cc.
You must add your company as described before you can contribute code under corporate CLA (CCLA).
(Corporate Contributors) After you complete the process, you must acknowledge . If you have already acknowledged company contributions, wait for few seconds or refresh the page to get your EasyCLA status updated.