Oss Repo Readiness

Open Source Repo Readiness

Getting a repo "open source ready" isn't about the license — that's a five-minute checkbox. It's about DevEx: whether a developer who has never talked to the maintainer can understand the project, run it, and land a contribution without having to ask a question first. Every piece of friction you remove here is a contributor you don't lose. This skill audits a repo against that bar, using patterns pulled from repos that are genuinely good at this (Vite, shadcn/ui, tRPC, Sentry, Supabase, Rust, Excalidraw, Caddy) rather than generic checklist advice.

Workflow

1. Inspect the repo. Read the root directory listing, README, package manifest (package.json / Cargo.toml / go.mod / pyproject.toml), CI config, and any existing docs. Figure out the language/ecosystem and how big the project is — a 200-star CLI and a framework with a plugin ecosystem need different amounts of ceremony. Don't assume; look.
2. Run the audit using the checklist below. Produce a short gap report: what exists, what's missing, what exists but is weak (e.g. a README with no quickstart, a CONTRIBUTING.md that's just a boilerplate stub).
3. Propose, don't dump. Share the gap report and ask which pieces to tackle — or if the user says "just do it," proceed through the checklist in priority order (Tier 1 first). Don't generate all nine files unprompted for a repo that only asked about its README.
4. Write files that reflect the actual repo, not placeholders. Pull the real install command from the manifest, the real test command from CI config or package scripts, the real license the user wants, the real project name. A generated CONTRIBUTING.md that says npm test in a Go repo is worse than no CONTRIBUTING.md.
5. Flag what you can't decide for them: license choice (MIT vs Apache-2.0 vs GPL has real implications — explain the tradeoff, don't just pick one), whether to enable Discussions, whether to add a CLA. Ask rather than assume for anything with legal or governance weight.

The audit, in priority order

Tier 1 — the first five minutes of a stranger's visit

These are what someone sees before they've run a single command. Weak here, and nothing else matters.

• README.md — this is the actual product page, not a formality. It needs, in order: a one-line description that says what problem this solves (not what it's built with), a quickstart that gets someone running something in under 60 seconds, and only then everything else. The Vite and shadcn/ui READMEs both lead with "what is this" before any badge or table of contents. If there's a UI, a screenshot or short GIF above the fold does more than three paragraphs of description — this is the single highest-leverage thing you can add to a README with a visual component. Cut anything that belongs in /docs instead: full API reference, architecture deep-dives, and changelog entries don't belong in the README — link to them.
• LICENSE — no license file means the code is not legally usable by anyone, full stop, regardless of what the README says. If the user hasn't chosen one, ask: MIT/Apache-2.0/BSD for "I want maximum adoption, don't care much what people do with it" (most dev-tool repos, including basically all of the ones referenced in this skill); Apache-2.0 specifically if patent grant language matters (common for anything that touches larger companies' legal review, e.g. Kubernetes-ecosystem projects); GPL/AGPL for "I want derivative works to stay open" (used deliberately by projects like Grafana pre-relicense, or database/infra tools wary of cloud providers repackaging them).
• Quickstart that actually works — the single most common OSS-readiness failure is a copy-pasted install command that's stale. Before treating the README as done, mentally (or actually) walk it as a first-time user would: clone, install, run — does the first command in the doc actually work against the current repo state?

Tier 2 — the first contribution

Everything a person needs to go from "I found a bug" or "I want to add X" to a merged PR without a synchronous conversation.

• CONTRIBUTING.md — dev environment setup, how to run tests, branch/commit conventions if any, and what the PR review process looks like (response-time expectations help — tRPC and Sentry both state roughly how fast maintainers respond). If the project uses a specific commit format (Conventional Commits is the common one, used by Vite/Vue/Angular-descended projects because it drives automated changelogs/semver), say so explicitly with an example, not just a link to the spec.
• Issue templates (.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/) — GitHub's issue forms (YAML, not just markdown templates) are the current standard: structured fields for repro steps, environment, expected vs actual behavior. Bug report + feature request at minimum. A blank issue box gets you "it doesn't work" with no repro; a form gets you something actionable. Include a config.yml that points support questions to Discussions instead of Issues if Discussions is enabled — keeps the issue tracker from filling with questions.
• Pull request template (.github/pull_request_template.md) — a short checklist (tests added, docs updated, linked issue) catches the common gaps before review rather than after.
• "Good first issue" labeling — not a file, but worth flagging: GitHub's own research found repos where ~25% of open issues are labeled "good first issue" see meaningfully more first-time contributors than those without. If the repo has open issues and none are labeled, that's a cheap, high-leverage fix — ask the user if they want help identifying 3-5 candidates from the current issue list.
• CODEOWNERS (.github/CODEOWNERS) — only worth adding once there's more than one maintainer or the repo has distinct areas of ownership; skip for solo-maintainer projects, it's pure overhead there.

Tier 3 — trust and governance signals

These matter more as the project grows past "a few people trying it" — don't over-invest here for a brand-new repo, but flag them as the project matures.

• CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md — the Contributor Covenant is the de facto default; almost no project needs a custom one. Its main value isn't the document itself, it's signaling "this is a maintained, professional space" to a first-time contributor deciding whether to engage.
• SECURITY.md — even a few lines (how to report a vulnerability privately, e.g. a security@ email or GitHub's private vulnerability reporting) matters the moment the project has real users, because the alternative is someone disclosing a vulnerability in a public issue.
• CHANGELOG.md — Keep a Changelog format (or auto-generated from Conventional Commits via changesets/semantic-release) tells people what changed between versions without reading commit history. Auto-generated is far more sustainable than hand-maintained for anything with regular releases.
• Governance / MAINTAINERS file — only for projects with multiple maintainers or that want to signal a path from contributor to maintainer. Skip for solo projects.
• FUNDING.yml (.github/FUNDING.yml) — only if the maintainer actually wants funding/sponsorship; trivial to add (GitHub Sponsors, Open Collective, etc.) and shows up as a "Sponsor" button on the repo.

Tier 4 — DevEx polish

The difference between "usable" and "a pleasure to contribute to." Higher effort, worth it for projects expecting sustained outside contribution.

• CI on every PR — tests + lint + build running automatically and visibly (a status check on the PR, plus a badge in the README) is table stakes for trust; a contributor shouldn't have to wonder if their change broke something.
• Devcontainer / one-command setup (.devcontainer/, or a Makefile/justfile/npm script that does everything) — removes "what version of X do I need" as a source of friction entirely. Rust projects lean on cargo doing this for free; polyglot or C-dependency-heavy projects benefit the most from an explicit devcontainer.
• Discussions enabled — for Q&A and proposals that shouldn't live in the issue tracker. Worth enabling once the issue tracker starts accumulating "how do I..." questions.
• Badges that mean something — build status, license, latest version, and maybe a Discord/Slack invite if community chat exists. Skip decorative badge walls; each one should answer a real question a visitor has ("does this still work," "what license," "can I ask a question somewhere"). A star-history chart is a nice-to-have late addition, not a priority.
• Repo topics + a real "About" description — cheap, easy to forget, and is how people find the repo via GitHub search/topic browsing at all.

Writing the actual content

When generating README/CONTRIBUTING/templates, don't reach for boilerplate. Base every command on what's actually in the repo:

• Pull the run/build/test/lint commands from package.json scripts, Makefile targets, Cargo.toml, CI workflow files, or existing docs — don't guess at conventional command names.
• Match the project's actual tone. A terse, code-forward CLI dev-tool README (think ripgrep or fd) reads differently from a README for a broader application-facing OSS project (think Excalidraw or Supabase).
• If the repo has no tests yet, don't write a CONTRIBUTING.md section instructing contributors to run tests that don't exist — flag the gap instead and ask if they want a minimal test setup first.
• Keep the README's first screen (before any scroll) to: name, one-line pitch, and the quickstart. Everything else — full docs, architecture, FAQ — can live below the fold or in /docs, linked rather than inlined.

Output

Default to writing the files directly into the repo at their conventional paths (README.md, CONTRIBUTING.md, .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/*.yml, etc.) rather than dumping content into chat — these are meant to be committed. Summarize what was added/changed and call out anything that still needs a human decision (license choice, whether to enable Discussions, who owns CODEOWNERS entries) rather than silently picking for them.