GitHub and GitHub Community

If you host your files on GitHub, they have recommended supporting files for documentation and building a community.

Readme

/README.md or /README.rst This file is shown at the bottom of your GitHub page. It (along with most other files) can be in Markdown or Restructured Text format. Look at the bottom of the pypi_package_example GitHub site for this website’s Read Me. You can click on the README.rst to see this file, and hit the ‘Raw’ button to see the source.

Badges - Badges are small graphics you can stick on your site to visually list information about your project. The README is a good spot for them. See this project’s README.rst. For more info see Badges.

Code of Conduct

• /CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md Public projects should have a code of conduct. Add it before you need one, not after. See GitHub’s Code of Conduct suggestions, and the Contributor Covenant for open source projects.

Contributing

• /CONTRIBUTING.md Encourage contributions to your project by telling interested developers how to get started.

License

• /license.md Post a license for how people can use the software. See Choose a License for help in selecting one. If other people contribute to your project, they do so under the license you publish. Changing the license on your project should involve the buy-in of all contributors. This isn’t easy with a popular open-source project, so choose wisely the first time.

Bug Report Template

• /.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/bug_report.md When people report a bug, GitHub will use the contents of this file as a template. This file, and similar ones like pull_request_template.md have a few different places where GitHub will look for them. I like putting them in .github rather than pollute the root directory. You can also have multiple templates, depending on if it is a bug, feature request, etc.

Pull Request Template

• /.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE/pull_request_template.md When developers create a pull request a bug, GitHub will use the contents of this file as a template.