JDK Enhancement Proposals are OpenJDK's vehicle for documenting and communicating substantial changes of the Java language, its APIs, and the runtime but also the JDK project itself, for example when it comes to development processes. Their well-defined structure and the immense care that goes into writing them make them eminently readable and understanding them well is essential to understanding Java's development.
In this "Ask the Architect" episode of the Inside Java Podcast, recorded during JavaOne 2026, Nicolai Parlog talks to Alex Buckley, the Guardian of the JEP process.