Refine CODEOWNERS for tiered contractor team ownership

[Copilot]

Implements a two-tier CODEOWNERS model: maintainer subteams gate application code merges, while full contractor teams have broader access to low-risk docs/markdown.

Changes

• Global default: @edx/enterprise-titans as sole catch-all (removes previous flat multi-team ownership including enterprise-markhors)
• Application code (/enterprise_catalog/): titans + enterprise-sunrise-maintainers + enterprise-lakshy-maintainers — CODEOWNERS satisfied only by trusted maintainers
• Docs & markdown (/docs/, *.md, *.rst): titans + full enterprise-sunrise + enterprise-lakshy teams — reduces friction on lower-risk changes

* @edx/enterprise-titans

# Application code: all three teams share ownership so contractor teams can review and merge.
/enterprise_catalog/ @edx/enterprise-titans @edx/enterprise-sunrise-maintainers @edx/enterprise-lakshy-maintainers

# Docs and markdown: lower-risk areas all teams can own.
/docs/ @edx/enterprise-titans @edx/enterprise-sunrise @edx/enterprise-lakshy
*.md @edx/enterprise-titans @edx/enterprise-sunrise @edx/enterprise-lakshy
*.rst @edx/enterprise-titans @edx/enterprise-sunrise @edx/enterprise-lakshy

This file serves as the template pattern for other enterprise repos in the edx org.

Original prompt

Problem / Goal

Refine the .github/CODEOWNERS file in the edx/enterprise-catalog repo to precisely match our new ownership model with:

• Contractor maintainer subteams for application code
• Full teams (not subteams) for docs/tests/markdown
• Clarifying comments separating each logical section

Requirements

• Use @edx/enterprise-titans as the global catch-all owner (*).
• For all application code (/enterprise_catalog/): only the maintainer subteams and titans should be owners:
  • @edx/enterprise-titans
  • @edx/enterprise-sunrise-maintainers
  • @edx/enterprise-lakshy-maintainers
• For docs, tests, and markdown, all three full teams and titans are owners:
  • /docs/, /tests/, and *.md/*.rst patterns for full teams (@edx/enterprise-titans, @edx/enterprise-sunrise, @edx/enterprise-lakshy)
• Add a brief comment above each logical section to explain the intent
• Match the formatting shown in the user-provided example
• Place the README-level comment block at the top, summarizing the policy (optional improvement)

Acceptance Criteria

• .github/CODEOWNERS matches exactly:

* @edx/enterprise-titans

# Application code: all three teams share ownership so contractor teams can review and merge.
/enterprise_catalog/ @edx/enterprise-titans @edx/enterprise-sunrise-maintainers @edx/enterprise-lakshy-maintainers

# Docs and markdown: lower-risk areas all teams can own.
/docs/ @edx/enterprise-titans @edx/enterprise-sunrise @edx/enterprise-lakshy
*.md @edx/enterprise-titans @edx/enterprise-sunrise @edx/enterprise-lakshy
*.rst @edx/enterprise-titans @edx/enterprise-sunrise @edx/enterprise-lakshy

• File is properly placed as .github/CODEOWNERS, overwriting any existing one if present
• No unused paths or teams (verify the enterprise_catalog/ directory does exist)
• Syntax is valid and matches GitHub CODEOWNERS requirements
• The PR explains and references the intended tiered access model

Important:

• The intent is to restrict higher-risk code to subteams and give broader merge permission on lower-risk docs/tests.
• This pattern will be used as a template for other enterprise repos.

The following is the prior conversation context from the user's chat exploration (may be truncated):

User: I"ve been working on this plan with chat GPT. What do you think?

Below is a Claude-ready implementation plan you can paste into Claude (or use as a task brief). It includes: team definitions, repo list + URLs, the policy intent, the exact CODEOWNERS templates to create, and the branch protection / permissions checklist.

---

Implementation Plan: Phased Merge Autonomy for Enterprise Repos (Claude Task Brief)

Date: 2026-04-01
Goal: Gradually delegate PR review + merge autonomy to contractor teams while keeping a “master” team with full approval/merge authority across all enterprise repos.

1) Organizations in scope

• GitHub org: openedx
• GitHub org: edx

2) Teams (existing)

These teams already exist and must be used as the starting point:

2.1 Master / can do everything

• Team: enterprise-titans
• Intended behavior:
  • Can approve and merge anything in all listed repos
  • Acts as ultimate override / backstop

2.2 Newly onboard teams (can open PRs)

• Team: enterprise-sunrise
• Team: enterprise-lakshy

2.3 Ownership by domain

• enterprise-lakshy owns:
  • Reporting
  • Admin portal
• enterprise-sunrise owns:
  • Integrations
  • Checkout

IMPORTANT DECISION REQUIRED DURING IMPLEMENTATION
If you need “trusted engineers only” to be able to satisfy CODEOWNERS approvals within Sunrise/Lakshy domains, create two new sub-teams and use them in CODEOWNERS instead of the full contractor teams:

• enterprise-lakshy-maintainers (trusted Lakshy engineers only)
• enterprise-sunrise-maintainers (trusted Sunrise engineers only)

If these teams are not created, then any member of enterprise-sunrise/enterprise-lakshy (with sufficient repo permission) could satisfy CODEOWNERS review for their owned areas.

---

3) Repositories in scope (high priority for CODEOWNERS)

Microservices / Backend Services

Repo	URL	Notes
openedx/enterprise-catalog	https://github.com/openedx/enterprise-catalog	Core service
openedx/edx-enterprise	https://github.com/openedx/edx-enterprise	LMS plugin
openedx/enterprise-access	https://github.com/openedx/enterprise-access	Access policies
openedx/enterprise-subsidy	https://github.com/openedx/enterprise-subsidy	Subsidy transactions
openedx/enterprise-integrated-channels	https://github.com/openedx/enterprise-integrated-channels	Sunrise-owned integrations
openedx/edx-enterprise-data	https://github.com/openedx/edx-enterprise-data	Lakshy-owned reporting
openedx/course-discovery	https://github.com/openedx/course-discovery	Shared source of truth
openedx/edx-enterprise-subsidy-client	https://github.com/openedx/ed...

This pull request was created from Copilot chat.