TheHat gets its name from a convention that a company I once worked for adopted as its release procedure acquired increasing complexity. At one point it was decided to designate an individual as the person who will guide workflow. That person, clipboard in hand, circulated amongst engineering and operations staff prompting release activities (and gating others). To stress the importance of this (and to lend a comic angle to the thing), that person was made to wear a hat. It was a tall pointed purple wizard's hat with stars moons and such on it. It was goofy but effective, and I decided to name this little hobby project of mine after the thing that inspired it.