docs: improve contributor experience with setup guide and enhanced gitignore #39247

Original file line number	Diff line number	Diff line change
Expand Up		@@ -56,3 +56,37 @@ docs-internal-data/

		# For intermediate data (like scraping for Elasticsearch indexing)
		tmp/

	# Additional common files to ignore
	*.log
	*.pid
	*.seed
	*.pid.lock
	.npm
	.nyc_output
	.grunt
	bower_components
	.lock-wscript
	build/Release
	.coverage
	.nyc_output
	.cache
	.parcel-cache
	.next
	out
	dist
	.nuxt
	.vuepress/dist
	.serverless
	.fusebox
	.dynamodb
	.tern-port

	# OS generated files
	.DS_Store
	.DS_Store?
	._*
	.Spotlight-V100
	.Trashes
	ehthumbs.db
	Thumbs.db

68 changes: 68 additions & 0 deletions CONTRIBUTING.md

Show comments View file Open in desktop

Original file line number	Diff line number	Diff line change
		@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
	# Contributing to GitHub Docs

	Thank you for your interest in contributing to GitHub Docs! 🎉

	## Quick Start for Contributors

	### First-time Setup

	1. Fork and clone the repository
	```bash
	git clone https://github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/docs.git
	cd docs
	```

	2. Install dependencies
	```bash
	npm install
	```

	3. Start the development server
	```bash
	npm run dev
	```

	### Making Changes

	1. Create a new branch
	```bash
	git checkout -b your-feature-branch
	```

	2. Make your changes
	- Edit content in the `content/` directory
	- Test your changes locally with `npm run dev`

	3. Test your changes
	```bash
	npm test
	npm run lint
	```

	4. Commit and push
	```bash
	git add .
	git commit -m "Brief description of your changes"
	git push origin your-feature-branch
	```

	5. Create a Pull Request
	- Go to GitHub and create a PR from your fork

	## Easy First Contributions

	- Fix typos in documentation
	- Improve code examples
	- Add missing installation steps
	- Update outdated links
	- Improve formatting and readability

	## Need Help?

	- Check the detailed [contributing guide](contributing/README.md)
	- Browse [help wanted issues](https://github.com/github/docs/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3A%22help+wanted%22)
	- Read the [content style guide](contributing/content-style-guide.md)

	## Code of Conduct

	Please note that this project is released with a [Code of Conduct](.github/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md). By participating in this project you agree to abide by its terms.

36 changes: 36 additions & 0 deletions README.md

Show comments View file Open in desktop

Original file line number	Diff line number	Diff line change
Expand Up		@@ -5,6 +5,42 @@ This repository contains the documentation website code and Markdown source file

		GitHub's Docs team works on pre-production content in a private repo that regularly syncs with this public repo.

	## Prerequisites

	- Node.js: Version 20 or 22 (see [engines](package.json) in package.json)
	- npm: Comes with Node.js
	- Git: For version control

	## Quick Start

	### Installation

	1. Clone the repository
	```bash
	git clone https://github.com/github/docs.git
	cd docs
	```

	2. Install dependencies
	```bash
	npm install
	```

	3. Start the development server
	```bash
	npm run dev
	```
	The site will be available at `http://localhost:4000`

	### Available Scripts

	- `npm run dev` - Start development server with English content only
	- `npm run start-all-languages` - Start server with all language versions
	- `npm run build` - Build the production version
	- `npm test` - Run the test suite
	- `npm run lint` - Check code style and formatting
	- `npm run prettier` - Format code automatically

		Use the table of contents icon <img alt="Table of contents icon" src="./contributing/images/table-of-contents.png" width="25" height="25" /> on the top right corner of this document to navigate to a specific section quickly.

		## Contributing
Expand Down

Navigation Menu