Getting started with MDN Web Docs
We are an open community of developers, technical writers, and learners building resources for a better Web, regardless of brand, browser, or platform. Anyone can contribute, and each person who does contribute makes us stronger. Together we can continue to drive innovation on the Web to serve the greater good. It starts here, with you.
What can I do to help?
There are multiple avenues you can take to contribute to MDN, depending on your skill set and interests. Therefore, along with each task, we provide a short description and an approximate time each type of task typically takes.
If you're unsure what to do, you can always ask for help in one of our communication channels. Also note that our small but mighty docs team maintains this repo. To preserve our bandwidth, off-topic conversations will be closed.
Primary contribution types
We have created a contributors task board to help you find contribution opportunities that will meaningfully impact the project. The board has an overview and separate views for specific contribution types.
Getting ready to contribute
To contribute, you will need a GitHub account. If you do not already have one, go ahead and sign up for an account before continuing. If you are new to GitHub, we encourage you to take the following free, self-paced courses and reading material offered by GitHub. With this knowledge, you can focus on your contributions without the burden of learning a new tool at the same time.
Note: Do not feel overwhelmed or like you have to read through and complete all of the course work. With the knowledge gained from the "Introduction to GitHub" course, you will be well on your way.
Additional reading and learning material
- Basic etiquette for open source projects: If you've never contributed to an open source project before, we encourage you to read this document.
- Learn web development: If you are new to HTML, CSS, JavaScript, we have some great content to help you get started.
- Deep dive into collaborating with pull requests
Some writing-specific contribution opportunities will require a reasonable understanding of the English language. That said, do not let perfect be the enemy of "good enough." Even if your grammar isn't good, don't worry about it! We have a team of people who aim to ensure that MDN's contents are as good as possible. In addition, someone will be along to ensure your work is tidy and well-written.
Once you've decided what kind of task you want to work on, it is time to head over to the contributors task board, pick an issue, and let us know by commenting on the issue and tagging the @mdn/mdn-community-engagement team. Someone from the team will respond and assign the issue to you.
This ensures that two people do not work on the same issue, and you will know who to contact should you get stuck.
Contributions
When contributing, you agree to make your contributions available under the Attribution-ShareAlike license (or an alternative license already specified by the page you are editing). In addition, code samples are available under Creative Commons CC-0 (a Public Domain dedication).
If you have any questions or concerns about anything discussed here, please contact us.