Primordials are a way we use to add robustness to certain areas in our code and there has been a lot of debate about whether or not the issues they create regarding performance and ease of contribution are worth it in different contexts.

[iambary44]

Primordials are a way we use to add robustness to certain areas in our code and there has been a lot of debate about whether or not the issues they create regarding performance and ease of contribution are worth it in different contexts.

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Context: nodejs/TSC#1438 nodejs/node#18795

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I'd like to proposes a (ideally short lived) new strategic initiative around deciding their status in the project.

I'm happy to drive this as a strategic initiative if there is interest from the TSC with the following format:

• We (all members invited) will meet a few times to write use cases and then derive tests from those use cases that will run during CI to enforce we don't break any primordials guarantees (e.g exit handler) . We will try to keep the scope small.
• We will add a warning to the docs outlining the robustness model regarding primordials and what guarantees Node makes. We will make a recommendation and an official "Node wants X" for TC39 discussion.
• We will recommend where to enforce primordials and where not to enforce them and what the PR flow around them should be.
• The TSC will approve every step above either by consensus (good) or by vote (bad).
• All this should happen in the timespan of a month or two, ideally. We rush nothing, hear everyone out and adapt/amend when needed.

I would really like it if collaborators who have spent a lot of time thinking about this participate, namely @aduh95 , @ronag @joyeecheung and @anonrig but there are a lot of others here like @isaacs and @ljharb that are welcome too weigh in and participate.

I think our opinions don't differ that much honestly and I think once we iron out the specifics we can come to a good resolution.

Originally posted by @benjamingr in nodejs/TSC#1439