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Software Accelerator

How to Contribute Code

This page is the technical workflow only: raising an issue, forking, branching, and opening a pull request. Looking to join as a contributor first (the CLA, membership)? See Becoming a Contributor on the Community page.

Find here the information about:

Raising an issue​

If you find problems or have requests for new features related to the code, please alert us by submitting an issue.

Who can raise issues? Anyone can raise issues against the projects, you do not need to have signed the Contributor License Agreement (CLA) to do so.

1. Go to the relevant repository​

GitHub repository page with the Issues tab highlighted

2. Create a new issue, select the type from the menu​

New issue dialog with the issue type selection menu open

3. Fill the description​

Issue form with the description field being filled in

4. Add a label, project,...​

Issue sidebar showing label and project assignment controls

5. Submit the issue​

A maintainer picks it up from there; you'll get updates as comments on the issue itself.

Forking and branching​

To work on a new feature or a bugfix you first need to fork the repository you want to work on. A detailed guide on how to fork a repository can be found in this guide to forking a repository.

Once you have your fork, create a branch for the change and name it by its kind, since that's what determines its target branch later:

  • A feature branch for new functionality or a non-urgent fix — targets development when you open the PR.
  • A hotfix branch for an urgent fix — targets main when you open the PR.

Opening a Pull Request​

Before your code can be merged, a signed Contributor License Agreement (CLA) must be on file — see Becoming a Contributor on the Community page if you haven't done this yet.

Once a feature or a hotfix branch is completed a new pull request against the development (in case of feature branches) or the main branch (in case of hotfix branches) is created:

1. Navigate to the list of available branches​

Depending on the concrete setup the new branch is available directly on the main repository or on your fork of the main repository.

GitHub branches list view showing available branches

2. Click on "New pull request"​

GitHub interface with the New pull request button highlighted

3. Select the target (base) branch​

  • For feature branches select the development branch
  • For hotfix branches select the main branch

4. Provide a summary of your changes in the textfield​

5. Click on "Create pull request"​

A maintainer reviews it from there; once it's approved and the CLA is confirmed on file, it gets merged.