Contributing (volunteering) to open-source projects is a great way to improve your skills and help the community. Here’s a step-by-step guide to getting started:
- Familiarize yourself with the repository: read the README.md, contributing.md, git-pullrequest-workflow.md and other documentation.
- Understand the project structure: what each file or directory is for.
- Run the project locally to see how it works.
- Fixing typos or improving documentation.
- Translating documentation.
- Testing the project and reporting bugs.
- If you want to write code, begin with simple tasks: small bug fixes, refactoring, or adding tests.
- Look for suitable
issuesin the Issues section on GitHub or dashboard, or create a task and assign it to yourself (more). For beginners, look for issues labeled withgood first issue. - Make sure the issue is available (not already taken by someone else).
- Comment on the issue asking if you can take it, and wait for confirmation from the maintainer.
4. Make Your First Pull Request (PR) more
| The best way | The valid way |
|---|---|
| Gain all necessary access to the repository and dashboard to work with them directly (eliminating issues with tests and workflow) by reaching out to the owners (e.g., dzmitry-varabei). | Fork the repository. |
| Create a new branch for your work. | Create a new branch for your work. |
| Make your changes and commit them with a clear message. | Make your changes and commit them with a clear message. |
| Push your branch to the repository and open a Pull Request to the main branch | Push your branch to your fork and open a Pull Request to the main repository. |
| Follow any feedback or requests from the reviewers. | Follow any feedback or requests from the reviewers. |
- Be respectful of reviewers and other contributors.
- Join project chats or forums to ask questions.
- Participate in discussions about new ideas and improvements.
- Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.
- Be patient. It may take time for reviewers to review your Pull Request.
- Learn along the way. Contributing is a great opportunity to gain knowledge.