Contributing to GitHub Projects

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I once read “GitHub brings more than open source—it reshapes how you think.” The gist: don’t just copy frameworks; build something yourself. Struggling through a tool or library forces you to grow. GitHub isn’t just a free buffet—it’s a platform to contribute.

For years I barely contributed—laziness was the main reason. Over the last year I started submitting PRs (ADR, awesome-mac, IDEA plugins, v2ray-docker, Alfred workflows). It cost time but paid off: sharper skills, new friends, better English. Open source gives back.

Contribution Flow

Standard projects usually have a CONTRIBUTING doc (see awesome-mac). Follow that first. For a typical contributor (not a maintainer), the flow looks like this:

  1. Fork the repo.
  2. Clone your fork locally (GitHub CLI or IDE integration works well).
  3. Commit and push changes to your fork.
  4. Open a pull request from your fork to the upstream repo.
  5. Wait for maintainer review.
  6. Once merged, your code lands in the main project.

Keep Your Fork in Sync

After a PR lands, your fork doesn’t update automatically. Options:

  1. Delete and re-fork (simple but heavy-handed).
  2. Rebase your local fork:
    git fetch upstream
    git checkout master
    git rebase upstream/master
    git push -f origin master
    

Most IDEs (e.g., IntelliJ IDEA) provide GUI support for this.

rebase

Closing Thoughts

Contribute when you can—it pays dividends while keeping you connected to the community.

Authors
Developer, digital product enthusiast, tinkerer, sharer, open source lover