**Related issue:** N/A (documentation, handbook, and article changes
only)
## Details
Gives Fleet-maintained apps (FMAs) customer-facing documentation of the
process behind the catalog:
- **New handbook section** (`handbook/company/product-groups.md` >
"Fleet-maintained apps"): what FMAs are, how the catalog is kept up to
date (4-hour upstream checks, automated PRs, validation on real hosts,
human review, hourly server refresh), the freeze process, security
expectations (vendor-direct downloads, pinned SHA-256 hashes,
open-source manifests and scripts), service level objectives, and how to
request or contribute an app.
- **New article** (`articles/inside-fleet-maintained-apps.md`, publishes
to `fleetdm.com/articles/inside-fleet-maintained-apps`): a
customer-facing explainer of the same pipeline with a mermaid diagram of
the add/review/validation workflow, coverage of automatic updates,
version pinning, and patch policies, the security model, and a
contributor section highlighting the repo's `new-fma` Claude Code skill.
Follows Fleet's article format (dek, key takeaways, CTA button).
- **Cross-links** from the existing FMA guide
(`articles/fleet-maintained-apps.md`) and between the handbook section
and the article.
## Notes for reviewers
- The SLO "Publish a validated app update within 1 business day of
detection" in the handbook table is a **new public commitment**. The
other numbers (4-hour ingest checks, hourly server catalog refresh,
3-business-day review of new app PRs) are grounded in the existing
workflows, server cron intervals, and the FMA contributor README. Please
confirm the 1-business-day target before merging.
- The article's author meta is Allen Houchins with a publish date of
2026-07-17; adjust if it should ship later or under a different author.
- All process claims were verified against the repo:
`.github/workflows/ingest-maintained-apps.yml`, `cmd/fleet/cron.go`
(hourly `maintained_apps` schedule),
`ee/server/service/maintained_apps.go` (SHA-256 verification and
`no_check` behavior), and `ee/maintained-apps/README.md` (contribution
and freeze process).
# Checklist for submitter
- [x] Documentation, handbook, and article changes only. No product code
changes, so the changes-file, testing, database migration,
configuration, and fleetd checklists don't apply.
- [x] Manually verified all links resolve (website routes, GitHub paths,
in-page anchors) and that the website renders mermaid code blocks
(`website/views/layouts/layout.ejs` loads `mermaid.min.js`; precedent in
`articles/enroll-hosts.md`).
Allen Houchins
133a05e93b
