GNOME Circle, which supports apps and libraries within the broader GNOME ecosystem that are not part of GNOME Core, has temporarily paused new submissions while its committee addresses a significant review backlog.
Sophie Herold announced the decision on behalf of the GNOME Circle Committee, which oversees application reviews and maintains review standards. The committee identified the backlog of unreviewed apps as its primary challenge, noting that some projects have waited years for feedback.
“To make sure that we are focusing on submissions that haven’t been addressed for a long time, we will stop accepting new submissions for now. We will reopen submissions when we have made a considerable dent in our backlog.”
This pause coincides with the introduction of a new AI policy for GNOME Circle submissions. The committee has adopted the same policy as GNOME Shell extensions, citing it as a precaution against low-quality machine-generated software that could increase the review backlog.
Currently, the policy applies only to new submissions. According to a committee-cited survey, 62% of maintainers do not use LLMs, 34% use them for minor questions or code snippets, and 3% use them for larger code segments. No maintainer indicated they have stopped writing code themselves.
The committee also referenced Flathub’s stricter AI policy, noting that since GNOME Circle apps are typically published on Flathub, its rules indirectly apply. Flathub now rejects apps containing AI-generated or AI-assisted code, documentation, or other content. This policy also covers submission materials such as manifests, metadata, patches, build scripts, and pull requests.
In addition to the submission freeze and AI policy, GNOME Circle is changing its process for handling review issues. Issues awaiting maintainer feedback will now be closed, and maintainers are expected to reopen them once they respond. The committee believes this will clarify which issues require further reviewer action.
Another change addresses outdated GNOME SDK use on Flathub. The committee notes it spends considerable time each release cycle encouraging Circle apps to update their SDK before it becomes unmaintained. To ease this process, maintainers will now receive reminders several months before the SDK reaches end of life, rather than just a few weeks in advance.
For additional details, see the announcement on GNOME’s Blog.
