PyHC has formally adopted PHEP 4: PyHC Package Tiering! This new Process PHEP establishes a three-tier structure for PyHC packages—Gold, Silver, and Bronze—that will replace the current “Core,” “Other,” and “Unevaluated” groupings.
Tiering preserves PyHC as an inclusive collection of Heliophysics-relevant Python packages while making it clearer which packages have completed additional review, standards compliance, and community-support steps. The tiers give users a better signal of how robust and maintained each package is, and higher tiers carry more benefits: summer school tutorial invitations, priority for inclusion in broader PyHC efforts like the PyHC Environment and PyHC-Chat, standards-compliance assistance, and consideration for conference travel funding (depending on tier and available PyHC resources).
Adopting PHEP 4 kicks off a process to re-designate every PyHC package into the new tiers. A few pieces of groundwork need to be in place first, though, including finalizing the related PyHC–pyOpenSci review PHEPs and standing up the Technical Steering Committee that performs reviews. As a result, there will be a delay before we launch the re-designation process. When we do begin, we’ll announce it officially (by email and at a telecon) and follow the timeline laid out in PHEP 4 from that point. No action is needed from package maintainers right now.
To learn more, read the full PHEP 4 document. Thanks to Julie Barnum for authoring PHEP 4, and to everyone who shaped it through community discussion. Questions or feedback? Join the discussion on PyHC’s mailing list or Slack!