Your first open source contribution 🇨🇲

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Make your first open source contribution by adding yourself to the OSS Cameroon contributors page. After that, your profile there can list the issues and pull requests you work on, in any open source project.

You only need a GitHub account. Everything happens on the GitHub website, so you don't need to install anything or use the command line.

Add yourself (about 5 minutes)

1. Click here to create your file. GitHub opens an editor with a file that's already filled in with example values. You can also type your username on the website and click Add me, which fills in your username for you.

2. Name the file after your GitHub username. In the box at the top, replace YOUR-GITHUB-USERNAME with your username, for example contributors/octocat.yml. Keep the .yml at the end.

3. Fill in your details. Replace the example values with your own. Only github and name are required, so delete the lines you don't want:

   github: octocat
   name: Mona Lisa Octocat
   bio: I build web apps and I'm learning Go.
   location: Yaoundé, Cameroon
   website: https://octocat.dev
   contributions:

4. Click the green Commit changes… button, then Propose changes. GitHub makes your own copy of the project (a fork) and saves your file there.

5. Click Create pull request twice. That's your first contribution 🎉

A bot checks your file within a minute and leaves a comment on your pull request. If something needs fixing, the comment tells you what to change and how. After your pull request is merged, your profile appears on the website a few minutes later.

List your open source contributions

Each time you open an issue or a pull request in an open source project, you can add it to your profile:

1. Open your file: https://github.com/osscameroon/firstcontributions/blob/main/contributors/<your-username>.yml (or click Is this you? Add a contribution on your profile page).

2. Click the ✏️ pencil icon to edit it.

3. Add the link under contributions:, on its own line, starting with two spaces and a dash:

   contributions:
     - https://github.com/osscameroon/js-generator/pull/42
     - https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues/12345

4. Click Commit changes…, then Propose changes, then Create pull request.

The website shows each item's title and whether it is open, merged or closed, and updates every day.

Fields

Field	Required	Description
github	yes	Your GitHub username. It must match the file name.
name	yes	Your name, up to 80 characters.
bio	no	A short sentence about you, up to 280 characters.
location	no	Where you are, e.g. Douala, Cameroon.
website	no	A link starting with https://.
contributions	no	Links to GitHub issues or pull requests you worked on, one per line.

Common problems

• "You can only add or edit your own file": the file name must be your GitHub username, e.g. contributors/octocat.yml.
• "not valid YAML": each line must look like field: value. Each item in contributions must start with two spaces and a dash: - https://....
• The file isn't in the contributors folder: delete it and start again from the link in step 1.

To fix your pull request, open its Files changed tab, click ⋯ next to your file, then Edit file.

Stuck? Ask for help in a comment on your pull request. Someone from the community will help you.

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For maintainers

• Website: npm run build generates a static site in dist/ from contributors/*.yml. The deploy workflow publishes it to GitHub Pages on every push to main, and once a day to refresh issue and pull request statuses. In Settings → Pages, set Source to GitHub Actions.
• Pull request checks: check-contribution.yml validates the changed files and comments with the result. It uses pull_request_target, so it runs on first-time contributors' pull requests without approval. For that reason it only parses the pull request's YAML files and never runs code from them. Keep it that way. Contributors can only change their own file; members and collaborators can change any file.
• Auto-merge (optional): set the repository variable AUTO_MERGE to true (Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions → Variables) to merge valid pull requests that only change the author's own contributor file. Turn on Settings → Actions → General → Allow GitHub Actions to create and approve pull requests if merging fails.
• Configuration: the community name, repository and website URL are in site.config.mjs. If you change the repository, update the link in step 1 (npm test reports when it's out of date).

Develop locally

npm install
npm test                 # unit tests + checks every contributor file
npm run build:offline    # build without calling the GitHub API
npm run build            # build with issue/PR titles (set GITHUB_TOKEN to avoid rate limits)
python3 -m http.server -d dist 8000