--- title: Inside the fork that became OpenTofu | daily.dev description: OpenTofu has developers from several companies hired to work on the project under the Linux Foundation and CNCF, maintainer Christian Mesh explains in a... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/inside-the-fork-that-became-opentofu-1rdagomnt twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Inside the fork that became OpenTofu | daily.dev og:description: OpenTofu has developers from several companies hired to work on the project under the Linux Foundation and CNCF, maintainer Christian Mesh explains in a... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/inside-the-fork-that-became-opentofu-1rdagomnt og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/1RdAGOMnt.png og:image:alt: Inside the fork that became OpenTofu og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Inside the fork that became OpenTofu **[All Things Open](https://daily.dev/sources/allthingsopen)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary OpenTofu has developers from several companies hired to work on the project under the Linux Foundation and CNCF, maintainer Christian Mesh explains in a podcast interview. Fidelity is among the contributors who have joined the effort. Mesh points to rug pulls and the fallout from CLAs as one of the trends shaking open source. His advice for breaking into open source: start small with pull requests and show real passion for the community, since several OpenTofu contributors moved from fixing simple issues to working on the project full-time. He also says he lives in Vim with about as few plugins as possible. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How is OpenTofu funded and maintained? OpenTofu is maintained by developers from several different companies who were hired specifically to work on the project under the Linux Foundation and CNCF. Fidelity is among the most recent companies to contribute developers to the effort, which keeps the fork running independently after it split from Terraform. _Anyone weighing Terraform against OpenTofu can track governance changes like these on daily.dev._ ### What does a rug pull mean in open source and why are CLAs controversial? A rug pull refers to a widely used open source project changing its licensing or governance so it stops being truly open, even without changing its name. OpenTofu's maintainer Christian Mesh calls rug pulls and the fallout from contributor license agreements (CLAs) one of the biggest trends currently shaking the open source world. _Developers deciding whether to sign a CLA can follow these governance debates on daily.dev._ ### What is the best way to become an open source maintainer? Start small by submitting pull requests and showing genuine passion for the project's community, according to OpenTofu maintainer Christian Mesh. He notes that several OpenTofu contributors progressed from fixing simple issues to working on the project full-time, suggesting consistent small contributions can lead to paid maintainer roles. _Contributors plotting a path from pull requests to a maintainer role can find similar stories on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Vouch for an open source web of trust \(Changelog News \#180\)](https://daily.dev/posts/vouch-for-an-open-source-web-of-trust-changelog-news-180--zqq2buyj3) · Changelog · 3 upvotes · 0 comments - [Put a Fork in It: The Future of Open Source That’s ‘Done’](https://daily.dev/posts/put-a-fork-in-it-the-future-of-open-source-that-s-done--e0z71tw7c) · The New Stack · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#career](https://daily.dev/tags/career), [#terraform](https://daily.dev/tags/terraform), [#opentofu](https://daily.dev/tags/opentofu) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/inside-the-fork-that-became-opentofu-1rdagomnt) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Inside the fork that became OpenTofu","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/inside-the-fork-that-became-opentofu-1rdagomnt","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/inside-the-fork-that-became-opentofu-1rdagomnt"},"datePublished":"2026-10-29T06:02:27.490Z","dateModified":"2026-10-29T06:02:59.264Z","description":"OpenTofu has developers from several companies hired to work on the project under the Linux Foundation and CNCF, maintainer Christian Mesh explains in a...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/9f2d4a9cde413b4c608f699df59d5065?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/9f2d4a9cde413b4c608f699df59d5065?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"All Things Open","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"All Things Open","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--dgFP6zAp--/f_auto/v1720885901/logos/allthingsopen","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/allthingsopen"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/inside-the-fork-that-became-opentofu-1rdagomnt","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"open-source,career,terraform,opentofu","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"All Things Open","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/allthingsopen"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Inside the fork that became OpenTofu"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/inside-the-fork-that-became-opentofu-1rdagomnt#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How is OpenTofu funded and maintained?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"OpenTofu is maintained by developers from several different companies who were hired specifically to work on the project under the Linux Foundation and CNCF. 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