November 25, 2025

Texera Apache Incubation – Monthly Meeting Minutes

Date: November 25, 2025
Participants:

• Texera PPMC: Chen Li, Ali Risheh, Xiaozhen Liu, Meng Wang, Jiadong Bai, Chris Park
• Guests: Xuan Gu, Andy, Ryan Yiran Zhang

1. Apache Release Preparation

Current Status

• Repositories: Apache repositories have been created and nightly images are available.
• Distribution Directories: Directories on dist.apache.org have been created at dev/incubator/texera/ and release/incubator/texera/.

Release Candidate TODOs

• Before Staging:
  • Merge a few ongoing PRs.
  • Decide whether to include the rpy2 package.
  • Ensure the Release Manager’s GPG key is signed by other Apache committers.
• After Staging:
  • PMC members must test and vote for the release candidates.
• Post-Approval:
  • Move artifacts from the dev directory to the release directory.
  • Update the project download page and send an announcement email.

2. Technical Updates

Infrastructure and Dependencies

• Switch to Apache Pekko:
  • The project is replacing Akka with Apache Pekko (Issue #4009, #3237).
  • Reasoning: Akka utilizes a non-FOSS Business Software License, preventing the uptake of bug and security fixes; Pekko is Apache-licensed.
• CI/CD Improvements:
  • GitHub Actions have been added to Docker images (Issue #4055) to support automatic pushing.
• Big Object Support:
  • Implementation of “Supporting Big Objects” (Issue #4067) is underway.
  • The architecture involves Workflow Service Instances, Computing Units, and integration with MinIO and Iceberg for storage and lifecycle management.

Security

• Policy Documentation: A SECURITY.md file has been added to the repository outlining the security policy.
• Security Model Overview:
  1. Authentication: JWT-based token authentication with configurable expiration.
  2. Authorization: Role-based access control (RBAC) with four user roles.
  3. Resource Access Control: Fine-grained privileges for datasets, workflows, and computing units.
  4. Deployment Isolation: Separate security considerations for different deployment modes.

3. Community and Website

• Website Launch: The official site texera.apache.org is now up.
• New Contributors (Nov 2025):
  • Andy Zhang
  • Xuan Gu
  • Jae Yun Kim
  • GitHub developer “LJX2017”

4. Next Steps

The team will focus on the following items moving forward:

• Improving the Apache website.
• Supporting control blocks.
• Enabling operator caching.
• Supporting customizable interfaces on top of workflows.
• Implementing Python virtual environments.
• Running User Defined Functions (UDFs) in a separate container.