About contributing guidelines

To help your project contributors do good work, you can add a file with contribution guidelines to your project repository's root,docs, or.github folder. When someone opens a pull request or creates an issue, they will see a link to that file. The link to the contributing guidelines also appears on your repository'scontribute page. For an example of acontribute page, seegithub/docs/contribute.

If your repository includes aCONTRIBUTING.md file, GitHub also surfaces it in two other places to make it easier for contributors to discover:

• A " Contributing" tab in the repository overview (next to the " README" and " Code of conduct")
• A "Contributing" link in the repository sidebar

For the repository owner, contribution guidelines are a way to communicate how people should contribute.

For contributors, the guidelines help them verify that they're submitting well-formed pull requests and opening useful issues.

For both owners and contributors, contribution guidelines save time and hassle caused by improperly created pull requests or issues that have to be rejected and re-submitted.

You can create default contribution guidelines for your organization or personal account. For more information, seeCreating a default community health file.

Adding aCONTRIBUTING.md file

1. On GitHub, navigate to the main page of the repository.

2. Above the list of files, select theAdd file dropdown menu, then click Create new file.

   Alternatively, you can click in the file tree view on the left.

   

3. Decide whether to store your contributing guidelines in your repository's root,docs, or.github directory. Then, in the filename field, type the name and extension for the file. Contributing guidelines filenames are not case sensitive. Files are rendered in rich text format if the file extension is in a supported format. For more information, seeWorking with non-code files.

   • To make your contributing guidelines visible in the repository's root directory, typeCONTRIBUTING.
   • To make your contributing guidelines visible in the repository'sdocs directory, typedocs/ to create the new directory, thenCONTRIBUTING.
   • If a repository contains more than oneCONTRIBUTING file, then the file shown in links is chosen from locations in the following order: the.github directory, then the repository's root directory, and finally thedocs directory.

4. In the new file, add contribution guidelines. These could include:

   • Steps for creating good issues or pull requests.
   • Links to external documentation, mailing lists, or a code of conduct.
   • Community and behavioral expectations.

5. ClickCommit changes...

6. In the "Commit message" field, type a short, meaningful commit message that describes the change you made to the file. You can attribute the commit to more than one author in the commit message. For more information, seeCreating a commit with multiple authors.

7. Below the commit message fields, decide whether to add your commit to the current branch or to a new branch. If your current branch is the default branch, you should choose to create a new branch for your commit and then create a pull request. For more information, seeCreating a pull request.

   

8. ClickCommit changes orPropose changes.

Examples of contribution guidelines

If you're stumped, here are some good examples of contribution guidelines:

• The GitHub Docscontribution guidelines.
• The Ruby on Railscontribution guidelines.
• The Open Governmentcontribution guidelines.

Further reading

• The Open Source Guides' sectionStarting an Open Source Project
• GitHub Skills
• Adding a license to a repository