Documentation Contributing Guidelines Contributing

Skill: Contributing Guidelines (CONTRIBUTING.md)

Purpose

To establish clear, welcoming, and standardized procedures for external and internal contributors to collaborate on a project. A well-crafted CONTRIBUTING.md minimizes friction, sets expectations, and ensures code quality.

When to Use

• When initializing a new open-source or inner-source repository
• When the project starts accepting pull requests from other teams or the public
• When there is confusion about the workflow, commit standards, or testing requirements

Procedure

1. Code of Conduct Integration

Always begin by linking to or establishing a Code of Conduct to ensure a safe and inclusive environment.

2. Getting Started & Setup

Provide exact commands to get the project running locally.

# Example setup instructions
git clone https://github.com/organization/project.git
cd project
npm install  # or pip install -r requirements.txt
cp .env.example .env
npm run dev

3. Branching Strategy

Define the naming conventions for branches.

• feature/short-description
• fix/issue-number-description
• docs/what-changed

4. Commit Message Convention

Enforce a standard, such as Conventional Commits.

type(scope): subject

body

footer (e.g., Closes #123)

Valid types: feat, fix, docs, style, refactor, perf, test, chore.

5. Pull Request Process

Outline the steps to submit a PR:

1. Ensure all tests pass (npm run test).
2. Run linters and formatters (npm run lint).
3. Update relevant documentation.
4. Fill out the Pull Request template completely.
5. Request review from code owners.

6. Issue Reporting

Provide templates or guidelines for:

• Bug Reports: Expected behavior, actual behavior, steps to reproduce, environment details.
• Feature Requests: Problem description, proposed solution, alternatives considered.

Best Practices

• Keep it concise but comprehensive.
• Use automated checks (e.g., GitHub Actions, Husky) to enforce these guidelines automatically.
• Provide links to architectural documentation if the project is complex.

Source: Ditto190/crispy-nextjs-turborepo-monorepo — distributed by TomeVault.