Contributing Guide Generator
Generate a professional CONTRIBUTING.md for your open source project.
Project Details
Lines: 159Words: 409Characters: 3333
About Contributing Guide Generator
A well-crafted CONTRIBUTING.md is essential for any open source project. It lowers the barrier for new contributors by explaining how to set up the development environment, follow coding conventions, write meaningful commit messages, and submit pull requests. This generator produces a comprehensive, ready-to-use CONTRIBUTING.md tailored to your project name, language, commands, and branching strategy — saving time while ensuring your project is welcoming and consistent for every contributor.
Built and maintained by Meet Shah · Last updated
What this tool is used for
- Adding a contributing document to a repository that has none.
- Producing a consistent guide across several projects.
- Getting a structure that covers setup, pull requests and conduct without writing from scratch.
- Creating a starting point you then tailor to the project's real workflow.
- Documenting an existing informal process so a newcomer can follow it.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Where does CONTRIBUTING.md go?
- The repository root, or `.github/`, or `docs/` — GitHub checks all three. Once it exists, GitHub links to it automatically when someone opens an issue or a pull request, which is the moment a contributor is actually looking for it.
- What has to be in it?
- How to set the project up and run the tests, the branch and commit conventions, what a reviewable pull request looks like, and how long a review usually takes. The last one costs nothing and prevents most of the frustration in open source.
- What is the difference between a CLA and a DCO?
- A Contributor License Agreement assigns or licenses rights to the project owner and needs signing, often through a bot. A Developer Certificate of Origin is a one-line assertion added with `git commit -s` — far lighter, and what the Linux kernel uses.
- Do I need a Code of Conduct too?
- They are separate documents with separate jobs: CONTRIBUTING says how to contribute, the Code of Conduct says how people are expected to behave and what happens when they do not. Link the second from the first; do not merge them.
- How do I attract first-time contributors?
- Label genuinely small issues `good first issue`, and make the setup instructions work on a clean machine — the commonest reason a first-time contributor gives up is a README that assumes a tool they do not have. Test the guide by following it yourself on a fresh checkout.
Common errors and gotchas
- Shipping the template unedited, so it describes a workflow the project does not follow.
- Leaving setup instructions that were never run, which is the first thing a newcomer discovers.
- Adopting a code of conduct with no named contact or enforcement path.
- Documenting a branch or review policy the repository settings do not actually enforce.
- Writing the guide and never linking it, so nobody finds it.
Related Generators tools
UUID Generator
Generate secure v4 UUIDs.
QR Code Generator
Create customizable QR codes and export as SVG or PNG.
Lorem Ipsum
Generate placeholder paragraphs, sentences, or word lists.
Random Hex Generator
Generate cryptographically random hexadecimal strings.
Random Number String
Generate a random string of digits of any length.
Random String Generator
Generate random strings from a custom character set.
Random Color Generator
Generate random colors as HEX, RGB, and HSL.
MAC Address Generator
Generate random MAC addresses in several formats.