All contributions to GitLab are subject to the DCO or a CLA. More on the GitLab DCO and CLA.

We want to make it as easy as possible for GitLab users to become GitLab contributors, so we created this contribution guide to help you get started. You will find step-by-step instructions to contribute to development, documentation, translation, and design.

Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging is one of our values. We want to create a welcoming community for every contributor. Please visit our Code of Conduct page to learn more about our commitment to an open and welcoming environment.

Get started

Choose a track to find step-by-step instructions on how to contribute.

Development

Whether it's fixing bugs, adding new features, helping with reviews, GitLab is a great Open Source community for developers from all backgrounds. Many contributors actually started contributing to GitLab development without being familiar with languages like Ruby.

Documentation

Contributing to documentation is a great way to get familiar with the GitLab development process and to meet reviewers and other community members. From fixing typos to better organizing our documentation, you will find many areas where you can contribute.

Translation

GitLab is being translated into more than 35 languages, and this is also driven by wider community members. If you speak another language, you can join more than 1,500 community members who are helping translate GitLab. Come and help us speak your language!

UX Design

To help make our product easy to use and built for a diverse group of people, we welcome contributions from the wider community. You can help us better understand your needs and how you use GitLab, or make your own contribution and GitLab UX team members will assist, as needed.

Engagement

Help us craft a fun and rewarding community experience, and help us spread the word about GitLab to reach more users and contributors. Help us foster a community where everyone feels like they belong, and where everyone is able to contribute. Whether you enjoy thinking about community strategy, blogging, organizing events, doing outreach, or just helping to create a fun and welcoming environment, we could use your help.

Project Templates

Project templates allow developers to get started with new languages and frameworks quickly. We welcome contribution from individuals or communities to the default templates which ship directly with GitLab. You can help promote your favorite languages and frameworks by helping developers around the world quickly get started not only creating default repositories, but providing them default CI/CD pipeline definitions as well!

Get Help

If you need any help while contributing to GitLab, below are some of the resources that are available.

  1. If you have feature ideas/questions, you can search for existing issues or create a new issue if there isn't one already. Feel free to mention product team members in the issue.
  2. If you need help with a Merge Request or need help finding a reviewer?
    1. Don't hesitate, ask for help by typing @gitlab-bot help in a comment.
    2. Find reviewers and maintainers of Gitlab projects in our handbook and mention them in a comment.
  3. Join the community on the GitLab Community Discord and initiate a mentor session.
  4. For any other questions or feedback, please email contributors@gitlab.com.

Community Contribution Metrics

You can see the wider community contribution data in our community dashboard as well as the number of wider community contributions per milestone.

Community growth numbers


Everyone can contribute

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June Core Team meeting

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Conversation with Rajendra Kadam P1

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Conversation with Rajendra Kadam P2

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Conversation with Adam Liter and Stan Hu

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Q2 2020 Hackathon kickoff

Community Newsletter