Introduction
FINOS projects are categorized according to the FINOS Project Lifecycle: each project is required to clearly display their Lifecycle Stage in the form of a badge in their README.md.
The Project Lifecycle is maintained by the FINOS Technical Oversight Committee and serves as a recognition of governance transparency, community health, in addition to functional (features) and non functional (security, best practices, etc) maturity of the project with respect to its stated goals and roadmap.
NOTE: The FINOS Lifecycle was updated in 2026 to reflect evolution of the foundation and now aligns closely with the CNCF maturity model.
Why is the Project Lifecycle needed?
- For Consumers: The lifecycle is designed to help users easily determine which projects are appropriate for their use, whether it be experimentation or production use.
- For Maintainers: The lifecycle gives FINOS maintainers a roadmap for progressing their projects towards increasing levels of maturity.
- For FINOS Staff: The lifecycle gives FINOS staff a way to offer access to different benefits (and therefore incentives) to projects which are more appropriate for their lifecycle stage.
FINOS Lifecycle Stages
Projects in FINOS can be in one of the following lifecycle stages:
| Badge | Lifecycle Stage Details | What does it signal to consumers? |
|---|---|---|
 | Forming | This stage is for projects can optionally start for a limited time in a Member-only private repo to gauge its viability and interest across Members, ahead of being open to the world. |
 | Labs | This stage is the default entry point for all FINOS projects which are in an initial exploratory or experimental phase while still hosted in a neutrally governed space overseen by FINOS. |
 | Incubating | This stage is for projects with high potential in early growth phase in terms of their functionality, maturity, and community sustainability. |
 | Graduated | This stage is the highest maturity stage, for active projects with healthy and diverse contributor and adopter communities |
 | Archived | This stage is for projects that, while potentially still highly valuable, are no longer actively maintained. |
Please review individual lifecycle stage pages for detailed information about what each stage represents for consumers, what are the criteria and ongoing requirements for projects to be in a lifecycle stage and instructions for maintainers how to apply for each stage.
FINOS Lifecycle Governance
Per TOC responsiblities, the TOC is responsible for:
- Maintaining and evolving all lifecycle stages definitions
- Approve lifecycle transitions (or new contributions) to the Incubating, Graduated and Archived stages
- resolve any potential dispute that may occur between project maintainers and who is proposing an archival transition
The FINOS Staff is responsible for:
- Accepting new projects into Labs stage according to the FINOS Labs requirements