Routinator users, we want your feedback
If you read our blog, you likely have some opinions or ideas about our software. We would love to hear those on the NLnet Labs community.
By Koen van Hove
If you are reading this blog post, you most likely use some (or even all) of our software. And if you are using our software, you form opinions and ideas based on your usage, which we would love to hear. At the beginning of 2026 we launched our community forum – the replacement of our mailing lists – as a place for users of our software to discuss just those.
Operators: tell us your pain points
We spent quite a bit of time trying to make sure Routinator works better for our core user group: operators. For example: last week we released the first release candidate of Routinator v0.16.0, which includes improvements that make it clearer what Routinator is doing (and why). That said, ultimately we spend our time writing software for operators rather than operating a large network ourselves, so we need your input on what you need and what works. Please do not be afraid to tell us on the community what you think, what works for you, and what doesn't – we don't bite :-)
Such support contracts provides you with an additional channel to share your feedback in private. We know sharing your ideas in public is complicated sometimes.
Researchers: share your plans
If you are an academic or researcher, we might be able to help you as well. NLnet Labs has a lot of combined experience in RPKI. We can likely tell you why things developed the way they did. Again, you can ask us these questions on the community.
If you are a security researcher trying to find security issues in our software, we can help you determine what to look for, what we consider in scope, and what our threat model is. We really appreciate people trying to make our software more secure, but right now most of the time we only get a message at the end of the process (e.g. “here are 8 vulnerabilities we found”); we like being involved earlier in the process than that. We wrote about that in a blog post two months ago as well. Again, these questions can be asked on the community (and for security reports via email).
Conference-goers: find and talk to us in person
In case you prefer talking to us in real life: this month several of us from NLnet Labs will be heading to DENOG 18. We are also at RIPE meetings, the IETF, DNS-OARC, RustWeek, FOSDEM, and NLNOG, among others. Feel free to approach us when you see us. Though if it's very complicated, it might be easier to have it in writing, in which case you can post it to – you guessed it – the community.
In case you are still not sure whether you can post about it on the community, here are some examples of things we would love to hear from you about:
- You found a bug in our software;
- You found conflicting or unclear documentation;
- You are missing a feature that would make your life easier;
- You made a really cool thing with or based on our software;
- You are working on an academic paper that involves our software;
- You are about to start scanning our software for security vulnerabilities.
The best place for all of this is our community. :-)