ovachiever/droid-tings/open-source-contributions
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Create maintainer-friendly pull requests for open source projects with clean code submissions and professional communication. Prevents 16 common mistakes that cause PR rejection. Use when: contributing to public repositories, submitting PRs to community projects, migrating from contributor to maintainer workflows, or troubleshooting PR rejection, working on main branch errors, failing CI checks, or personal artifacts in commits.
Install
npx vskill@latest install ovachiever/droid-tings/open-source-contributionsSKILL.md
Open Source Contributions Skill
Version: 1.1.0 | Last Verified: 2025-11-06 | Production Tested: ✅
Overview
Contributing to open source projects requires understanding etiquette, conventions, and what maintainers expect. This skill helps create professional, maintainer-friendly pull requests while avoiding common mistakes that waste time and cause rejections.
Key Focus: Cleaning personal development artifacts, writing proper PR descriptions, following project conventions, and communicating professionally.
When to Use This Skill
Use this skill when:
- Creating pull requests for public repositories
- Contributing to community open source projects
- Submitting code to projects you don't maintain
- First-time contributor to a new project
- Want to increase PR acceptance rate
- Need guidance on PR best practices
Auto-triggers on phrases: "submit PR to", "contribute to", "pull request for", "open source contribution"
What NOT to Include in Pull Requests
Personal Development Artifacts (NEVER Include)
Planning & Notes Documents:
Screenshots & Visual Assets:
Test Files (Situational):
Build & Dependencies:
IDE & OS Files:
Secrets & Sensitive Data:
Temporary & Debug Files:
What SHOULD Be Included
Pre-PR Cleanup Process
Step 1: Run Pre-PR Check Script
Use the bundled scripts/pre-pr-check.sh to scan for artifacts:
What it checks:
- Personal documents (SESSION.md, planning/*, NOTES.md)
- Screenshots not referenced in PR description
- Temporary test files
- Large files (>1MB)
- Potential secrets in file content
- PR size (warns if >400 lines)
- Uncommitted changes
Step 2: Review Git Status
Ask yourself:
- Is every file change necessary for THIS feature/fix?
- Are there any unrelated changes?
- Are there files I added during development but don't need?
Step 3: Clean Personal Artifacts
Manual removal:
Or use the clean script:
Step 4: Update .gitignore
Add personal patterns to .git/info/exclude (affects only YOUR checkout):
Writing Effective PR Descriptions
Use the What/Why/How Structure
Template (see references/pr-template.md):
Example Good PR Description
Titles: Follow Conventional Commits
Format: <type>(<scope>): <description>
Types:
feat:- New featurefix:- Bug fixdocs:- Documentation onlystyle:- Formatting (no code change)refactor:- Code restructuring (no behavior change)perf:- Performance improvementtest:- Adding/updating testsbuild:- Build system changesci:- CI configuration changeschore:- Other changes (no src/test changes)
Examples:
Commit Message Best Practices
Structure
See references/commit-message-guide.md for complete guide.
Subject line rules:
- 50 characters max
- Imperative mood ("Add" not "Added")
- Capitalize first word
- No period at end
- Describe WHAT changed
Body rules (optional):
- 72 characters per line
- Explain WHY (code shows WHAT)
- Separate from subject with blank line
Footer (optional):
- Reference issues:
Closes #123 - Note breaking changes:
BREAKING CHANGE: ...
Examples
Good:
Bad:
PR Sizing Best Practices
Ideal Sizes
Research-backed guidelines:
- Ideal: 50 lines of code
- Good: Under 200 lines
- Maximum: 400 lines
- Beyond 400: Defect detection drops significantly
Why small PRs matter:
- Faster reviews (maintainers can review in one sitting)
- Easier to find bugs
- Simpler to revert if needed
- Reduced merge conflicts
- More focused discussions
How to Keep PRs Small
1. One Change = One PR
2. Separate Refactoring from Features
3. Use Feature Flags Ship incomplete features behind flags, merge early and often:
4. Break Down by Layer
When Large PRs Are Acceptable
- Initial project scaffolding
- Generated code (clearly marked as such)
- Large refactors that can't be split (explain why in description)
- Documentation rewrites
- Dependency updates (automated)
If unavoidable: Add clear section headers in PR description to guide review.
Following Project Conventions
Step 1: Read CONTRIBUTING.md
Always read this FIRST - it's the project's law. Common locations:
/CONTRIBUTING.md/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md/docs/CONTRIBUTING.md
Key sections to check:
- Development setup
- Testing requirements
- Code style guidelines
- Commit message format
- PR process
- Review expectations
Tip: Add /contribute to repository URL to find beginner-friendly issues.
Step 2: Check for Style Guides
Files to look for:
.eslintrc,.eslintrc.js(JavaScript/TypeScript linting).prettierrc(Code formatting).editorconfig(Editor settings)STYLE.md(Style guide documentation)rustfmt.toml(Rust formatting)pyproject.toml(Python formatting)
Run formatters before committing:
Step 3: Match Existing Patterns
Look at recent merged PRs:
- How are files organized?
- What naming conventions are used?
- How verbose are comments?
- What testing patterns exist?
- How are imports ordered?
The Golden Rule: "Do things the way the project maintainers would want it done."
Step 4: Test Requirements
This is the start of the file. Read the full SKILL.md on GitHub.
Security
- Security scanPassed, 100 of 100Pattern checks on the skill's files.
- Model reviewPassed
Quality evaluation
- Task evaluationNot runNo evaluation yet. Run one in Skill Studio.
Source
- SKILL.md in the repositoryCheckingskills/open-source-contributions/SKILL.md
Popularity
- Repository stars
- 43
- Repository forks
- 5
- 7-day trend score
- 19
Stars and forks are for the whole GitHub repository, not this skill alone. Refreshed 14 May 2026, 5 months ago.
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