Development Services

Upstream OSS sponsorship retainers and client feature delivery — we contribute to the open-source projects you depend on, as contributors of record, not maintainers.

About Our Development Services

At Private Garden, we turn sponsorship and client needs into upstream contributions on the open-source projects that matter. We don’t maintain forks for clients, and we don’t take over projects. Instead, we show up as contributors in good standing, do the work under our own identity, and make sure the community and the sponsor both benefit.

Key Benefits

Real upstream presence on the OSS projects your stack depends on
Transparent contribution model — public commits, public reviews, no shadow forks
Attach-only Client Extensions — scoping and feature delivery are only available alongside an active Infrastructure or Cybersecurity engagement, keeping the scope focused
Honest upstream fit assessments — we turn down projects whose governance or CLA terms conflict with our contributor model
Monthly reporting on what landed, what’s in flight, and what the upstream conversation looks like
Alignment with the community — your sponsorship strengthens the project, not just your fork

Sovereign Infrastructure — the engagement a Client Extension attaches to when your feature delivery lands in the stack we help you run.
Cybersecurity — the engagement a Client Extension attaches to when your feature delivery supports a CSPN or Common Criteria certification.

Legal notice

Development engagements are advisory, best-effort contributions. Private Garden cannot guarantee that any specific patch or feature will be merged upstream, as merge decisions belong exclusively to the open-source project’s maintainers and governance. Our commitment is to execute the contribution work transparently, to the project’s contribution norms, and with monthly reporting. Client Extensions (scoping and feature delivery) are only available as an attachment to an active Infrastructure or Cybersecurity engagement.

Our Services

We offer two engagement families: ongoing OSS sponsorship and targeted client extensions attached to active Infrastructure or Cybersecurity engagements.

🌱 OSS Sponsorship — Standard

A six-month minimum retainer funding upstream contributor presence on one open-source project you depend on. We contribute code, review patches, engage with maintainers, and represent your interests in the community — as contributors of record, not as maintainers. Ideal when you want sustained upstream advocacy for a single critical dependency.

🌳 OSS Sponsorship — Premium

A six-month minimum retainer extending upstream contributor presence across up to three open-source projects. Same contribution model as Standard, scaled across a portfolio. Ideal when your product depends on a cluster of OSS projects that need coordinated attention.

🔭 Client Extension — Upstream Scoping (attach-only)

A 1 to 3-day fixed-price engagement that de-risks an upstream feature before you commit to shipping it. **Available only as an attach to an active Infrastructure or Cybersecurity engagement.** We evaluate the maintainer landscape, identify the right integration points, surface blockers, and produce a scoping document your team can act on.

🚚 Client Extension — Feature Delivery (attach-only)

A 3 to 30-day engagement to deliver a feature upstream on your behalf. **Available only as an attach to an active Infrastructure or Cybersecurity engagement.** We write the code, submit patches, work with maintainers through the review cycle, and hand you a merged (or merge-ready) contribution.

Our Methodology

Our development engagements follow a structured methodology built around upstream norms and transparent reporting:

Project Identification

Together we identify the OSS project or projects that matter most to your stack, and align on what 'success' means for the engagement — features landed, issues resolved, presence maintained, or all three.

Maintainer Landscape Review

We map the project's maintainers, contribution norms, and current roadmap to make sure our work will actually land. If a project has blocking governance issues — CLAs we can't sign, hostile review culture, stalled upstream — we say so before we start.

Engagement Plan

We produce a contribution plan aligned with the project's norms: which patches, in which order, with which commit style and CI expectations. For Client Extensions, this doubles as your scoping deliverable.

Upstream Contribution

We write the code, open patches, run the review cycle, and iterate through maintainer feedback — working in the open, under our own contributor identity, with your sponsorship acknowledged where the project allows.

Reporting & Knowledge Transfer

We report monthly on contributions landed, issues engaged, and upstream conversations that matter. For Feature Delivery, we document the technical decisions and the integration path your team needs to follow.

Why Choose Private Garden

Upstream OSS work lives or dies by trust with the maintainer community. We enter projects as contributors, not as maintainers — no forks we then monetize, no takeover attempts, no drive-by patches. Our work is transparent: you see the commits, the reviews, the conversations. We decline projects whose governance or CLA terms conflict with this model, and we’ll tell you upfront when a project isn’t a good fit. The result is real upstream presence that benefits you and the community at the same time. Important: Development engagements are advisory and best-effort. Upstream contributions depend on maintainer acceptance — we commit to doing the work transparently and to upstream norms, but we do not guarantee that any specific patch will be merged, as that decision belongs to the project’s maintainers.

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