Impressions from Jenkins Contributor Summit in Brussels

The Jenkins Contributor Summit in Brussels was a milestone for me.

Not just because contributors from across Europe and also from the United States came together in one place. But because it was the first time I had the privilege of moderating the event. Thanks a lot to Stephane Merle for the time keeping and Bruno Verachten for the planning and organization support.

Standing in front of a room full of long-time maintainers, officers, SIG leads, and community members is both humbling and inspiring. Many of us collaborate daily online, yet being physically in the same room changes the dynamic completely.

This summit reminded me that Jenkins is not just an automation server — it’s a living ecosystem shaped by people who care deeply about it.

We began by welcoming everyone and outlining the goals for the day.

As moderator, my role wasn’t to dominate discussions but to guide them with keeping conversations focused, making sure different voices were heard, and ensuring we stayed aligned with the broader objectives. Open source thrives on open discussion, but structure helps turn discussion into progress.

From the beginning, the atmosphere was collaborative and forward-looking.

One of the core sessions focused on the present state and the year 2025 of Jenkins from the perspective of project officers.

We heard updates covering the year’s accomplishments, ongoing challenges, and strategic priorities from the officers’ point of view:

These perspectives grounded the summit in reality. Jenkins operates at global scale, and maintaining trust — in releases, infrastructure, and security — requires continuous effort behind the scenes.

It was a reminder that governance and operational work are just as critical as writing code.

There will be a separate blog post covering the officer updates in more detail, but I want to highlight the security update here.

The Special Interest Groups shared progress and plans, particularly around User Experience and Platform topics.

The UX discussions highlighted how carefully the project must balance modernization with backward compatibility. Jenkins cannot simply reinvent itself overnight — it evolves incrementally, respecting the massive ecosystem built around it.

On the technical side, we discussed Java support, the challenges faced by community plugin maintainers, and the ongoing effort to modernize plugins at scale.

The session on plugin modernization and OpenRewrite stood out. Automating large-scale refactoring is essential for keeping the ecosystem healthy without overwhelming maintainers. Sustainability is not just about infrastructure, it’s also about reducing maintenance burden.

We made space for interaction — including brainstorming workshop ideas and identifying areas where deeper collaboration is needed.

Once contributors start exchanging ideas in person, momentum builds quickly. Topics ranged from AI fabricated Pull Requests to onboarding improvements and UX refinements.

The energy in the room was constructive. Disagreements were pragmatic rather than ideological. Everyone shared the same goal: ensuring Jenkins remains relevant and reliable.

I took a photo during one of the sessions, and it captures the spirit of the summit:

We also talked about advocacy and outreach.

How do we attract new contributors? How do we support existing maintainers? How do we communicate innovations more effectively?

One recurring realization: Jenkins builds valuable improvements, but we don’t always communicate them clearly enough. Strengthening community outreach is essential for long-term growth.

During the open discussion, we ran a structured “headstand” exercise to generate fresh ideas.

Instead of asking, “How do we achieve our goal?”

we deliberately flipped the challenge upside down and asked, “How could we guarantee the opposite?”

We closed with focused workshop discussions, including:

For me personally, moderating the summit was a learning experience.

It required:

Most of all, it reinforced something I already knew but felt more strongly in Brussels:

Jenkins is sustained by people who show up.

The Contributor Summit wasn’t just a series of agenda items.

It was alignment.

It was trust-building.

It was shared responsibility.

And I’m grateful that this time, I got to help guide the conversation from the front of the room. Thanks to everyone who participated, shared their perspectives, and contributed to the discussions.