A Beginner's Guide to Open Source Contributions💻

Hey folks, if you are wondering how to start your open-source journey, this article will help you do that.

Here are steps to begin your open-source contribution journey. All the best.

Fork the repository

Fork this repository by clicking on the fork button at the top of this page. This will create a copy of this repository in your account.

Clone the repository

Now clone the forked repository to your machine. Go to your GitHub account, open the forked repository, click on the code button and then click the copy to clipboard icon.

Open a terminal and run the following git command:

git clone <url you just copied>

where "URL you just copied" is the URL to this repository (your fork of this project).

For example:

git clone git@github.com:this-is-you/Thoughtify

where this-is-you(DexAsHisH) is your GitHub username. Here you're copying the contents of the Thoughtify repository on GitHub to your computer.

Create a branch

Change to the repository directory on your computer (if you are not already there):

cd Thoughtify

Now create a branch using the git switch command:

git switch -c <add-your-new-branch-name>

For example:

git switch -c add-new-feature

Make necessary changes and commit those changes

Now, resolve issues, make the necessary changes to your file, and save the file.

If you go to the project directory and execute the command git status, you'll see there are changes.

Add those changes to the branch you just created using the git add command:

git add <file-name>

Now commit those changes using the git commit command:

git commit -m "Add a descriptive message"

Push changes to GitHub

Push your changes using the command git push:

git push origin <your-branch-name>

replacing your-branch-name with the name of the branch you created earlier.

Submit your changes for review

If you go to your repository on GitHub, you'll see a Compare & pull request button. Click on that button.

Now submit the pull request.

Soon, they will merge all your changes into the main branch of this project. You will get a notification email once the changes have been merged.

Congrats! You just completed the standard fork -> clone -> edit -> pull request workflow that you'll often encounter as a contributor!