-1 After reviewing the proposal to merge Bolt into the Gluten project, I would like to cast a -1 vote. I appreciate the effort behind the proposal and the work behind Bolt, but I have several concerns that make me believe the integration is premature at this stage. 1. Limited open-source impact and ecosystem maturity Bolt currently lacks broad community adoption, contributor diversity, and real-world production feedback. Without a stronger open-source presence, it is difficult to justify maintaining it as an official backend within Gluten. 2. Increased long-term maintenance cost Gluten already maintains multiple backends. Adding a new engine will further expand the testing surface, regression vectors, and ongoing compatibility work for maintainers. This increases the burden on the entire community. 3. Significant added pressure on GitHub Actions CI Introducing another backend means additional compile targets, integration tests, and version compatibility checks. This will noticeably increase CI usage, slow down PR cycles, and reduce contributor productivity. Given that CI resources are already limited, this is a non-trivial concern. 4. Unclear readiness for community governance and sustainability Bolt’s current development model may require substantial ongoing support from a single organization. Without broader contributor engagement, the risk of uneven maintenance burden becomes high. For these reasons, I do not believe merging Bolt into Gluten is the right step at this time. I recommend continuing Bolt’s development independently until it reaches a stronger level of ecosystem maturity, stability, and community adoption. Thanks for the discussion and for all the work contributed. Best regards, Neng Liu
李扬 <[email protected]>于2026年2月5日 周四18:54写道： > +1 > > Terry Wang <[email protected]> 于2026年2月5日周四 18:22写道： > > > +1, Thanks for your efforts! > > > > On Thu, Feb 5, 2026 at 5:27 PM wangguangxin <[email protected]> > > wrote: > > > > > *Hi Gluten Community,* > > > I would like to call for a vote on merging Pull Request #11261, which > > > introduces the "Bolt" backend to the Apache Gluten (Incubating) > project. > > > *PR Link:* https://github.com/apache/incubator-gluten/pull/11261 > > > *Summary of Changes:* This PR adds support for a new execution backend > > > based on the open source "Bolt" repository (github.com/bytedance/bolt) > > > which includes: > > > > > > - Initial integration of the Bolt backend into the Gluten core > without > > > interfering functionality of the existing backends. > > > - Comprehensive documentation to facilitate the development setup > and > > > smooth transition from other backends. > > > - Community validated performance results. > > > > > > > > > *Highlights of "**Bolt**" backend:* > > > > > > - Performance & Stability > > > - Generic features like adaptive task parallelism / operator fusion > / > > > JIT and Spark-specific optimization like row-based spilling, > > shuffle > > > offload and memory management offload demonstrate significant 22% > > > performance enhancement over existing gluten backend on the > TPC-DS > > 1T > > > benchmark. > > > - Results consistency with Vanilla Spark is verified on 1million+ > > > daily Spark daily jobs within ByteDance. Known differences like > > > double type > > > precision, JSON parse and regex search etc. are re-implemented to > > > match > > > Spark / Java behavior as much as possible with reasonable & > > > deterministic > > > behaviors. > > > - Maintenance Commitment: > > > - Bolt repository is setup to embrace contributions from everyone by > > > eliminating opaque CI and privileged merge permissions. We > > > deeply resonate > > > with the engineering overhead to maintain internal forks against > > > unpredictable review patterns upstream, so our goal is to provide > > an > > > alternative to replace fragmented rebase with high-velocity, > > unified > > > development stream. We have observed many examples that have > > > seriously > > > hindered the growth of the Gluten community, including but not > > > limited to > > > - Stale performance improvement after 6 months: > > > https://github.com/facebookincubator/velox/pull/14472 > > > - Stale bug fix ends up in Gluten workaround after 6 months: > > > https://github.com/facebookincubator/velox/pull/14722 > > > - Stale bugfix after 12 months: > > > https://github.com/facebookincubator/velox/pull/11771 > > > - Stale feature after 15 months: > > > https://github.com/facebookincubator/velox/pull/11088 > > > - 2-year review cycle for performance improvement: > > > https://github.com/facebookincubator/velox/pull/7066 > > > The Bolt team is committed to ensuring that similar issues > > > will never occur in the Bolt community. To push for fast > > > iteration, Github > > > issues/PR reviews/discussions are currently responded to > > > within 2 business > > > days. > > > - After the merge of the Bolt backend, Bolt team is > responsible > > > for setting up a CI pipeline within the Gluten repository to > > > ensure quality > > > & coverage. Besides the existing Gluten committer, > > > *@guhaiyan0221* *@kexianda > > > *and *@ZacBlanco *are responsible for maintaining the Bolt > backend > > CI > > > pipeline stability on all supported hardware platforms. > > > - Build with community: > > > - Bolt values “Community over Code” spirit and is collaborating with > > the > > > community at early design phase on the following features > > > - Flink acceleration (*discussion > > > <https://github.com/bytedance/bolt/discussions/20>*) > > > - Connector interface for data lake formats (*issue > > > <https://github.com/bytedance/bolt/issues/107>*) > > > - Native shuffle with Celeborn (*issue > > > <https://github.com/bytedance/bolt/issues/13>*) > > > - Tiered memory manager for spilling & hardware affinity > > > - … > > > - We believe the community should own the future of this > > project. > > > By nominating early active contributors to committer roles, we > are > > > decentralizing leadership and shaping a governance model built by > > the > > > people who use it. This evolution is a critical step toward > > donating > > > the > > > project to an open-source foundation > > > > > > > > > *Review Status:* The PR has received significant feedback and > > contributions > > > from several community members. It currently has over 20 commits > > addressing > > > style, building scripts, and functional refinements. > > > > > > *Voting:* The vote is open until 2026-02-8 23:59:59 (UTC-8). According > to > > > the Apache voting process, we need at least 3 +1 votes from PMC > > > members/Committers and more +1 than -1 votes in total. > > > Please vote as follows: > > > > > > - *+1:* Approve the merge > > > - *+0:* No opinion > > > - *-1:* Disapprove (please provide specific justification) > > > > > > Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the reviews and development > of > > > this feature! > > > > > > Best regards, > > > Guangxin Wang > > > > > >
