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Finding Something To Work On
We manage our project work in Jira, so you will need to create a Jira account to interact with our tickets.
We recommend starting with tickets in the INCR project because these are tickets that are extremely contained in their scope. You don't need to understand the entire codebase to make a contribution. The success criteria for completing these tickets are very clear. These are great for anyone new to the Open edX platform because the barrier to entry is low.
- Find an INCR ticket to work on from the INCR Epics section of the INCR project dashboard.
- The INCR tickets are grouped together into Jira epic tickets.
- Select an epic from the dashboard and navigate to "Stories in this epic" to see all of the tasks associated with it.
- The tickets should be self documenting as to what steps to take to complete it.
- When you find one you want to try, comment on it that you are starting it.
- Click "Start watching this issue" to get updates in the future.
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Right now, we're in the process of retooling how we capture and advertise "good first tasks". However, we encourage you to check out our Working groups! There are a few working groups that may have some work they can help guide you through as a new contributor to the project. Particularly:
- The Build-Test-Release WG (or BTR): they manage our named releases, which come out each June and December. They particularly need help starting mid-Feb through June and mid-August through December. See the Working groups page to get in touch with them and view their project board.
- The frontend working group: they manage the state of our frontend, including both new features and upgrades. They'd love more people to join them!
- The DEPR WG: they work on deprecating various aspects of the Open edX platform. Some deprecations are pretty approachable, others are rather complex. Reach out to them to see if they've got anything you might be able to work on.
The other working groups are very interesting (and worth attending!) but don't have a backlog of work.
Do you have an idea of what to work on? That's awesome! We encourage you to post your ideas on the Open edX discussion forums to get feedback on your idea and get connected to others that can help you out. Please clearly state your idea, what you plan to do, link to any relevant code/screen shots, and ask specifically for what type of feedback or help you are looking for.
Dev Env!
Get Started with the edX devstack and follow the information in the ticket you selected to complete itexplains how to stand up Devstack. Post in the Development category on the Open edX forum if you have questions about set-up or development.
Note: we are currently (spring 2022) in an effort to replace Devstack with Tutor. We encourage you to try out Tutor and see how it goes for you. There's a special Tutor forum to get help specifically on Tutor.
Getting Support
Join the #incr Open #dev Open edX Slack channel to ask questions and get support. There may be also more channels to get technical support mentioned in your specific ticket.
If you get stuck on a particular ticket you should leave a comment on the ticket where you got stuck
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, for example #ops is better suited if you are running your own instance and have questions. Also consider using the Open edX forums - please search for your answer first. 
Why? The Slack history is deleted after 6 months but the forums never delete history, so your questions there will be displayed to people searching for similar questions in the future.
Making Your First Pull Request
When you are ready to submit changes, create a Pull Request. (Don't forget to sign the Contributor Agreement)
- Be sure to reference which INCR ticket your code is resolving.
- Mention @edx/incr-reviewers in the PRIf you did work for a working group, post your pull request in the appropriate WG Slack channel
- Communicate with the reviewer about the code and respond to feedback.
- Once your PR is approved it will be merged by the reviewer.
- Celebrate 🎉
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We are always looking to improve this process and make it easier for people to contribute to the platform. Your feedback is a very important part of that process.
Please submit that feedback herefill out the survey posted on your pull request once it is closed. If you have specific praise, or constructive criticism you think the community could benefit from, please post on the forums.