Cleans up and clarifies gitignore contribution guidelines

Adds clarification around our expectations for contributions and
how contributions will be handled when they don't meet our requirements.

Updates template to lean into our contribution guidelines.

Cleans up duplicate wording around our contribution guidelines.
This commit is contained in:
Daniel Johnson 2026-04-17 13:36:54 -07:00
parent 7247090aa6
commit d0c2ec65c2
3 changed files with 44 additions and 43 deletions

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@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
### Link to the application or project's homepage
_TODO_
<!---
Link to the project or application's homepage.
--->
### Reasons for making this change
_TODO_
@ -8,9 +15,8 @@ Please provide some background for this change.
### Links to documentation supporting these rule changes
_TODO_
<!---
Link to the project docs, any existing .gitignore files that project may have in it's own repo, etc
Link to the project docs, any existing .gitignore files that project may have in its own repo, etc
--->
### If this is a new template
@ -18,6 +24,14 @@ Link to the project docs, any existing .gitignore files that project may have in
Link to application or projects homepage: TODO
### Merge and Approval Steps
- [ ] Confirm that you've read the [contribution guidelines](https://github.com/github/gitignore/tree/main?tab=readme-ov-file#contributing-guidelines) and ensured your PR aligns
- [ ] Ensure CI is passing
- [ ] Get a review and Approval from one of the maintainers
<!---
Please ensure you accomplish these tasks in order to get your contribution accepted
--->
- [ ] I have read the [contribution guidelines](https://github.com/github/gitignore/tree/main?tab=readme-ov-file#contributing-guidelines) and understand my PR will be closed if it doesn't meet these guidelines
- [ ] I have ensured CI is passing
<!---
Once done, please wait for a GitHub maintainer to review your PR and if necessary,
work with them to address any findings.
--->

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@ -2,36 +2,45 @@
Wed love you to help us improve this project. To help us keep this collection
high quality, we request that contributions adhere to the following guidelines.
Any contributions that don't meet any of these guidelines will be closed.
- **Provide a link to the application or projects homepage**. Unless its
extremely popular, theres a chance the maintainers dont know about or use
the language, framework, editor, app, or project your change applies to.
- **Provide a reason for making this change**. Even if it seems self-evident,
please take a sentence or two to tell us why your change or addition should
happen. Its especially helpful to articulate why this change applies to
*everyone* who works with the applicable technology, rather than just you or
your team.
- **Provide links to documentation** supporting the change youre making.
Current, canonical documentation mentioning the files being ignored is best.
If documentation isnt available to support your change, do the best you can
to explain what the files being ignored are for.
- **Explain why youre making a change**. Even if it seems self-evident, please
take a sentence or two to tell us why your change or addition should happen.
Its especially helpful to articulate why this change applies to *everyone*
who works with the applicable technology, rather than just you or your team.
- **Keep scope as limited as possible**. Changes should be as small as possible
and apply to the most specific gitignore template available for the target
application. For example: OS-specific ignore rules like `.DS_Store` are not
accepted anywhere but their specific gitignore, `Global/macOS.gitignore` in
this case.
- **Please consider the scope of your change**. If your change specific to a
certain language or framework, then make sure the change is made to the
template for that language or framework, rather than to the template for an
editor, tool, or operating system.
- **Please only modify *one template* per pull request**. This helps keep pull
- **Only modify *one template* per pull request**. This helps keep pull
requests and feedback focused on a specific project or technology.
- **Add new rules to the best section**. Please ensure your contribution does
not create duplicate sections or add rules in places unrelated.
- **No duplicate rules**. It's easy to do, but it creates confusion and
introduces the risk of one or the other being missed in an update.
In general, the more you can do to help us understand the change youre making,
the more likely well be to accept your contribution quickly.
If a template is mostly a list of files installed by a particular version of
some software (e.g. a PHP framework) then it's brittle and probably no more
helpful than a simple `ls`. If it's not possible to curate a small set of
useful rules, then the template might not be a good fit for this collection.
useful rules, then the template is not a good fit for this collection.
Please also understand that we cant list every tool that ever existed.
Our aim is to curate a collection of the *most common and helpful* templates,

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@ -36,6 +36,9 @@ We support a collection of templates, organized in this way:
## What makes a good template?
First and foremost, a template contribution must adhere to our
[Contribution Guidelines](CONTRIBUTING.md).
A template should contain a set of rules to help Git repositories work with a
specific programming language, framework, tool or environment.
@ -61,33 +64,7 @@ include your language, tool, or project, its not because its not awesome.
## Contributing guidelines
Wed love for you to help us improve this project. To help us keep this collection
high quality, we request that contributions adhere to the following guidelines.
- **Provide a link to the application or projects homepage**. Unless its
extremely popular, theres a chance the maintainers dont know about or use
the language, framework, editor, app, or project your change applies to.
- **Provide links to documentation** supporting the change youre making.
Current, canonical documentation mentioning the files being ignored is best.
If documentation isnt available to support your change, do the best you can
to explain what the files being ignored are for.
- **Explain why youre making a change**. Even if it seems self-evident, please
take a sentence or two to tell us why your change or addition should happen.
Its especially helpful to articulate why this change applies to _everyone_
who works with the applicable technology, rather than just you or your team.
- **Please consider the scope of your change**. If your change is specific to a
certain language or framework, then make sure the change is made to the
template for that language or framework, rather than to the template for an
editor, tool, or operating system.
- **Please only modify _one template_ per pull request**. This helps keep pull
requests and feedback focused on a specific project or technology.
In general, the more you can do to help us understand the change youre making,
the more likely well be to accept your contribution quickly.
Please see our [Contributing Guidelines](CONTRIBUTING.md).
## Versioned templates
@ -153,3 +130,4 @@ by automatically forking the project and prompting to send a pull request too.
## License
[CC0-1.0](./LICENSE).