# Feature request management

Feature requests are not a valuable source of input for the project.
It is usually more productive to first send the Pull Request implementing the
feature, even imperfectly, and let the discussion happen during code review.
That being said, the project still welcomes feature request issues, either for
features you cannot and/or won't implement yourself, or if you need more input
from the community before starting the work.

The project is volunteer run and does not have the ability to direct resources
toward specific work. The features which are implemented are those for which
volunteers are individually motivated to work on. The best way to ensure
a feature gets implemented is to create a PR to add it.
The project strives to support people who do that.

An open feature request does not provide any indication that work
on that feature will take place and after some period of time
may be detrimental as it may result in an expectation that will
never be fulfilled.

This process tries to balance retaining the valuable input
we get through feature requests and the overhead of
maintaining open feature requests that will never get
implemented.

## Creating feature requests

A feature request can be created by adding the `feature request`
label to an issue. This may be done automatically when the issue
is opened or at a later point (often when investigation of a bug
report results in it being considered a feature request as opposed
to a bug).

The current list of feature requests can be found through the
[is:issue is:open label:"feature request"](https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3A%22feature+request%22)
query.

## Triage of feature requests

There is no set process for triaging/handling feature requests.
Individual collaborators review issues marked as `feature request`
along with other issues and may or may not decide to
work on an implementation or advocate on their behalf.

## Expressing support for a feature request

If you come across a feature request and want to add your
support for that feature please express your support
with the thumbs up emoji as a reaction. At some point in the
future we may use this as additional input in the automated
handling of feature requests.
