@waynebeaton (and the PMC/EMO, @toddewilliams, and team),
Thank you for the engaging reply—your point about clarifying strategic interests is well-taken, and it's a fair ask in any incubation discussion.

TL;DR: The Eclipse IDE must evolve into an AI-first tools integration platform to stay relevant in the dev tools landscape. Eclipse Copilot could be the catalyst for this change, but after 4 months, it hasn't shown minimal viability. As a long-time user with strategic interest, I'm eager to contribute—but opportunities remain TBD until we see liveness and openness.

Let me expand. As a long-time Eclipse IDE user and plugin developer who's innovated on the platform, I've watched community adoption shrink amid rising AI demands. Native AI support is now table stakes, yet Eclipse lacks it—third-party plugins like Copilot4Eclipse (disclosure: @toddewilliams and I fund, develop and freely distribute this plugin) and the now generally available GitHub/Microsoft Copilot plugin have heroically filled the gap, helping extend Eclipse's life for end-users.

Looking ahead, Eclipse needs to natively embrace AI-first dev. When Eclipse Copilot launched, the community buzzed with excitement: As a plugin dev, I could envision open access to core AI services as an innovation engine—powering our workflows and inspiring creation of unimagined productivity tools. It's a compelling vision, especially with sponsorship from an AI-forward leader. Eclipse Copilot could kickstart it. But without demonstrable operation—public updates, accepted PRs, active discussions—no one can gauge influence or commit resources responsibly. Once viability clicks in, expect quick momentum from folks like us.

As a long-time user with strategic interest, I'm eager to contribute

To be honest, I wonder to see this discussion started and pushed from Genuitec. I can't remember any Genuitec contribution to the Eclipse platform in the last ~10 years, especially considering the fact that Genuitec business is based on Eclipse since very beginning.

Once viability clicks in, expect quick momentum from folks like us.

I assume this momentum would result in a Copilot4Eclipse builds building on the open source version of Copilot?

Do you plan to change the company policy and start contributing back to Open Source now, or would you like to continue with the current modus operandi?

@iloveeclipse
I’ll be honest — I’m disappointed to see the conversation start off with a personal jab instead of focusing on the project. That kind of ad hominem stuff doesn’t help anyone here, and it sidetracks what could be a productive discussion.

For context: Genuitec has been building Eclipse-based products for over 24 years. Whenever Eclipse has shown signs of losing relevance, we’ve invested heavily — for a company our size — to help keep it viable. A few examples:

• When Eclipse needed a modern UI and dark theme, we built Darkest Dark / DevStyle.
• When the pandemic hit and teams shifted overnight to remote work, we built CodeTogether Cloud so collaboration inside Eclipse wouldn’t stall.
• When AI tools began leaving Eclipse users behind, we delivered Copilot4Eclipse.

Those were meaningful investments. Your comment seems rooted in a “form over function” view of contribution, but different organizations contribute in different ways. Large companies can focus on upstream commits; smaller ones like ours survive by delivering complete, production-ready solutions the community relies on. That’s the perspective that’s kept us active in the ecosystem long after many others have moved on.

Regarding the Eclipse Copilot project: we’re watching its early direction and looking for where we may add the most value. As Wayne Beaton noted, clarity around structure and resourcing helps everyone align their efforts.

We’re here, we’re engaged, and we want to contribute where it strengthens the Eclipse IDE. Let’s keep the discussion focused on how the project moves forward — that’s where the real opportunity is.

@wayneparrott the good news is that you don't have to wait for this specific project to gear up to get involved. The Eclipse IDE Working Group is actively pushing several AI initiatives forward, including the upcoming creation of several new Eclipse open source projects. I'm sure that you can find several ways to add value today and in the near future.

The community is gathering in the Eclipse IDE AI Discussions matrix channel. If you care to contribute to the long term viability and shape the future of AI in the Eclipse IDE, then this is where you can find out what's happening in the community and figure out how best to join the heroic effort.

@wayneparrott Could you share more specific details about the type of contribution you’d like to make to the Copilot plugin? If you have feature requests or have encountered any bugs, you can create issues and include detailed reproduction steps.

@wayneparrott The Eclipse IDE Working Group is also working on initiatives to improve SWT. Contributing custom widgets that provide a modern look for SWT-based applications would be a meaningful investment in the community to mitigate against the Eclipse IDE losing relevance. The Eclipse Platform team can help you engage.

Over two months have passed since I created this ticket and six months since this project has seen an update (8/25/25).

There has also been no communication regarding any outline, plan, timeline, or direction despite the commitment two months ago by @hangwan97 to "share progress shortly.".

It's time to admit that this project never really got going and is quite dead. I therefore reiterate my call to archive it.

@toddewilliams
At this point, continued calls to archive the project aren’t helping move things forward. If timelines and progress are a priority for you, the most constructive step would be to engage directly as a contributor.
I'll also reiterate the words from @waynebeaton - Incubation is precisely the phase where projects stabilize with community involvement, not pressure alone.

Contribute to what? An abandoned code base from six months ago?

My point is precisely that there is neither something to contribute to nor any articulated plan at any level of when that will change.

Just asking for literally any sign of life by the creators of this project is not asking for much.

To clarify: the project is not terminated, abandoned, or “dead.” We’re actively working through planned updates. We’d also appreciate avoiding terms like “abandoned” or “dead” in future discussions—they’re inaccurate and not constructive for the community.

Regarding visibility: we’re not obligated to publish our internal discussions or decisions. We’ll share concrete, public updates when they’re ready and actionable.

Regarding visibility: we’re not obligated to publish our internal discussions or decisions.

An Eclipse project is expected and obligated to operate in an open and transparent manner. So doing things elsewhere other than in the open, including discussions and planning, and doing a code drop at some future time is really not appropriate nor defensible. You should behave as if there exists a team of people involved, most of whom do not work for your company. That should be a general goal of an open source project.

I assume (and am aware) there are some growing pains involved so some leeway seems reasonable. But best to move forward quickly rather than defend a lack of transparency. Simply create an issue to outline the plan.

We're all excited about having this project up and running as an exemplary Eclipse open source project. I am looking forward to the project being in a state where it is able to accept contributions from the community that is spontaneously developing around it. I have no doubt that the project team will get there.

I'll reiterate that the fact that the project is in the incubation phase serves as a flag to adopters that the project team is adjusting to being an Eclipse open source project. Moving a project to the Eclipse Foundation is a process not an event, which is why we have the incubation phase in the first place. When the project team has "learned the ropes" and is operating in accordance with the Eclipse Foundation Development Process, Eclipse Intellectual Property Policy, and is otherwise operating as an exemplary Eclipse open source project, the EMO will engage with the project team in a graduation review that will move the project to the mature phase.

It is not uncommon for a new project -- after being created and starting the process of moving their code over to Eclipse Foundation resources and adopting practices that are consistent with the EDP -- to hit a road block and be forced to regroup. Sometimes that takes time. My understanding is that the project team is still determined to make this work.

The fact that the project team continues to engage in this discussion is an obvious "sign of life". A faint sign, but a sign non-the-less.

Having said all that, I'll also reiterate my concern that if the project team takes too long to engage and include them in discussions, the community that includes some of our most experienced Eclipse committers and contributors growing around the project may lose interest. While the project team is not obligated to publish internal discussions and decisions, I'll remind the project team that -- while they move through the incubation phase -- moving those discussions and the decision making process into the open is a fundamental ingredient in running a successful vendor-neutral open source project (and a requirement for graduation from incubation).

The EMO will not initiate a termination review for this project at this time.

If you don't like this response, there are some options.

1. You can fork the project and start your own project;
2. If the PMC feels that the project is dysfunctional and that immediate action is required to mitigate, they can contact the EMO to discuss options;
3. If you believe that the EMO is operating improperly, per the grievance handling process as defined in the EDP you should contact the executive director or your Eclipse Foundation Board of Directors representative (e.g., the Contributing Member Representative, or one of the Committer Reps).

FWIW, the election for board representatives will be starting soon. Please be sure to vote for your representatives.