Contributing to IT-Journey

Thank you for your interest in contributing to IT-Journey! We welcome contributions from developers, content creators, and learners of all experience levels.

Quick Start

  1. Read the Developer Guide: See the comprehensive Developer Contributing Guide
  2. Setup Your Environment: Follow the Development Environment Setup
  3. Understand the Structure: Review Repository Structure
  4. Follow Standards: Check Content Guidelines and Frontmatter Standards

🚀 First-Time Contributor Fast Track

New here? Make your first contribution in under 5 minutes!

Perfect first contributions that require no setup:

# 1. Fork this repo on GitHub (click "Fork" button)

# 2. Clone and create branch (replace YOUR-USERNAME)
git clone https://github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/it-journey.git
cd it-journey
git checkout -b fix/my-first-contribution

# 3. Make your change (example: fix typo in this file)
# Edit CONTRIBUTING.md or any documentation file

# 4. Commit and push
git add .
git commit -m "docs: fix typo in CONTRIBUTING.md"
git push origin fix/my-first-contribution

# 5. Create Pull Request on GitHub

That’s it! Once you’ve made your first contribution, explore the full developer guide for more complex contributions.

Documentation

All technical documentation for contributors has been organized as follows:

For Human Contributors

For AI Agents (VS Code Copilot)

AI agents assisting with contributions should reference:

The .github/instructions/ directory contains AI-optimized instructions that help VS Code Copilot and other AI agents assist contributors more effectively while maintaining project standards and quality.

Additional Documentation

Types of Contributions

Content Creation

Code Contributions

Documentation

Community Support

Prerequisites

Before contributing, you should have:

Contribution Workflow

Standard Workflow (All Contributions)

# 1. Fork and clone
git clone https://github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/it-journey.git
cd it-journey

# 2. Create branch (use descriptive name)
git checkout -b feature/your-feature-name

# 3. Make changes
# Edit files

# 4. Test locally (for code/Jekyll changes)
docker-compose up  # Or: bundle exec jekyll serve --config _config_dev.yml
# Visit http://localhost:4000 to verify changes

# 5. Commit with conventional format
git add .
git commit -m "feat(scope): description"
# Examples: 
#   "docs: improve contributing guide"
#   "feat(quest): add docker basics quest"
#   "fix(ci): resolve workflow timeout issue"

# 6. Push and create PR
git push origin feature/your-feature-name
# Go to GitHub and click "Create Pull Request"

Commit Message Format: <type>(<scope>): <description>

See the Developer Contributing Guide for detailed workflow instructions.

Code of Conduct

Getting Help

Questions

Issues

Support Channels

Recognition

Contributors are recognized through:

License

By contributing, you agree that your contributions will be licensed under the MIT License.

For complete contribution guidelines, please see the Developer Contributing Guide.

Last Updated: 2025-11-07 Next Review: 2025-12-07