docs/content/communities/setting-up-your-project-for-healthy-contributions/setting-guidelines-for-repository-contributors.md

title	intro	versions	redirect_from	topics
Setting guidelines for repository contributors	You can create guidelines to communicate how people should contribute to your project.	[{free-pro-team *} {enterprise-server *} {github-ae *}]	[/articles/how-do-i-set-up-guidelines-for-contributors/ /articles/setting-guidelines-for-repository-contributors /github/building-a-strong-community/setting-guidelines-for-repository-contributors]	[Community]

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's contribute page. For an example of a contribute page, see github/docs/contribute.

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.

{% if currentVersion == "free-pro-team@latest" or enterpriseServerVersions contains currentVersion %}

You can create default contribution guidelines for your organization{% if currentVersion == "free-pro-team@latest" or currentVersion ver_gt "enterprise-server@2.19" %} or user account{% endif %}. For more information, see "Creating a default community health file."

{% endif %}

{% tip %}

Tip: Repository maintainers can set specific guidelines for issues by creating an issue or pull request template for the repository. For more information, see "About issue and pull request templates."

{% endtip %}

Adding a CONTRIBUTING file

{% data reusables.repositories.navigate-to-repo %} {% data reusables.files.add-file %} 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, see "Rendering differences in prose documents." - To make your contributing guidelines visible in the repository's root directory, type CONTRIBUTING. - To make your contributing guidelines visible in the repository's docs directory, type docs/ to create the new directory, then CONTRIBUTING. - If a repository contains more than one CONTRIBUTING 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 the docs 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. {% data reusables.files.write_commit_message %} {% data reusables.files.choose_commit_branch %} {% data reusables.files.propose_new_file %}

Examples of contribution guidelines

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

• The Atom editor contribution guidelines.
• The Ruby on Rails contribution guidelines.
• The Open Government contribution guidelines.

Further reading

• The Open Source Guides' section "Starting an Open Source Project"{% if currentVersion == "free-pro-team@latest" %}
• [{% data variables.product.prodname_learning %}]({% data variables.product.prodname_learning_link %}){% endif %}{% if currentVersion == "free-pro-team@latest" or enterpriseServerVersions contains currentVersion %}
• "Adding a license to a repository"{% endif %}