[GH-02] Establish team-based CODEOWNERS and protected review rules

[jaavid]

Background

CoreLink is managed as one product across multiple implementation boundaries. This work is owned by .github under EPIC-01.

Problem

CoreLink does not yet have verified, consistently maintained evidence that every active repository has an authoritative ownership map and protected-review enforcement. A central policy in the organization .github repository is useful, but GitHub CODEOWNERS files are repository-scoped and are not inherited automatically by other repositories.

Goal

Establish team-based ownership and protected review rules across all active repositories, with .github holding the authoritative policy/template and each repository carrying or receiving the enforcement artifacts it actually requires.

Parent

• Primary Product Epic: EPIC-01
• Backlog ID: GH-02

Scope

• Define the authoritative organization ownership policy and reusable CODEOWNERS template/generation approach in .github.
• Materialize repository-scoped CODEOWNERS in each active repository that requires code-owner review; do not assume organization-level inheritance.
• Configure or verify protected review enforcement through repository rulesets/branch protection as appropriate.
• Define a minimal documented exception path for repositories that intentionally use different ownership/review rules.
• Reconcile affected organization policy, product claims, security, release, documentation and repository maturity.
• Retain acceptance evidence for the Governance Baseline gate.

Out of Scope

• Runtime feature implementation in this Issue.
• Duplicating the product roadmap in repository README files.
• Presenting scaffolds or planned capability as a supported release.
• Treating a CODEOWNERS file in the organization .github repository as inherited enforcement for other repositories.

Acceptance Criteria

• Team and repository ownership is approved and documented in the authoritative organization policy.
• Every active repository has a repository-scoped CODEOWNERS file where code-owner review is required, or a documented approved exception.
• Protected review/ruleset configuration is verified for every active repository in scope.
• At least one real pull-request workflow demonstrates that the expected owner review is requested/enforced.
• Ownership, review and exception paths are explicit and linked from affected repositories without duplicating planning state.
• Security, license, privacy and release impacts are addressed where applicable.
• Acceptance evidence is linked and EPIC-01 is reconciled.

Current Audit Evidence

• Organization-wide code search on 2026-08-25 found no CODEOWNERS file in the accessible CoreLink repositories.
• The connected GitHub integration cannot read platform/main branch-protection details (403 Resource not accessible by integration), so protected-review enforcement cannot be certified from this audit and must remain an explicit acceptance check.

Technical Notes

Use organization-wide policy/templates where useful, but keep enforcement semantics repository-local where GitHub requires it. Repository-specific exceptions must be minimal and documented. Product maturity claims must distinguish Scaffold, Experimental, Alpha, Beta, Stable and Deprecated.

Dependencies

• Decision prerequisite: team and repository ownership approval must establish authoritative owners before CODEOWNERS/protection can be treated as accepted governance.
• Execution prerequisite: identify all active repositories in scope and the protection mechanism used by each (ruleset or branch protection).
• Blocks: protected review enforcement, repository ownership acceptance, and EPIC-01 governance completion.
• Cross-repository: implementation will require repository-specific changes/configuration; link concrete PRs or evidence instead of duplicating product planning.
• Current dependency state: See the CoreLink Product organization Project.

Planning Metadata

• Type: Technical Task
• Priority snapshot: P0
• Product milestone snapshot: Governance Baseline
• Domains snapshot: governance, security
• Area snapshot: operations
• Complexity: M
• Created in status: Triage
• Current status and DRI: See the CoreLink Product organization Project.
• Intended repository labels: type:technical-task

Definition of Done

• Acceptance criteria demonstrated across every active repository in scope.
• Required reviews and retained evidence pass.
• Organization and repository links are updated.
• Security and policy implications are reviewed.
• Documentation and release notes are updated where applicable.
• Pull request(s), ruleset/branch-protection evidence, or approved exceptions are linked.