.. _start-contributing:

Getting started with contributing?

There is no pre-defined pathway for new contributors -- we recommend looking at

existing issue and pull request discussions, and following the conversations

during pull request reviews to get context. Or you can deep-dive into a subset

of the code-base to understand what is going on.

There are a few typical new contributor profiles:

* **You are a Matplotlib user, and you see a bug, a potential improvement, or

something that annoys you, and you can fix it.**

You can search our issue tracker for an existing issue that describes your

problem or open a new issue to inform us of the problem you observed and

discuss the best approach to fix it. If your contributions would not be

captured on GitHub (social media, communication, educational content), you can

also reach out to us on gitter_,

`Discourse <https://discourse.matplotlib.org/>`__ or attend any of our

`community meetings <https://scientific-python.org/calendars>`__.

* **You are not a regular Matplotlib user but a domain expert: you know about

other field where Matplotlib could be improved.**

Awesome -- you have a focus on a specific application and domain and can

start there. In this case, maintainers can help you figure out the best

implementation; open an issue or pull request with a starting point, and we'll

be happy to discuss technical approaches.

If you prefer, you can use the

`GitHub functionality for "draft" pull requests <https://docs.github.com/en/pull-requests/collaborating-with-pull-requests/proposing-changes-to-your-work-with-pull-requests/changing-the-stage-of-a-pull-request#converting-a-pull-request-to-a-draft>`__

and request early feedback on whatever you are working on, but you should be

aware that maintainers may not review your contribution unless it has the

"Ready to review" state on GitHub.

* **You are new to Matplotlib, both as a user and contributor, and want to start

contributing but have yet to develop a particular interest.**

Having some previous experience or relationship with the library can be very

helpful when making open-source contributions. It helps you understand why

things are the way they are and how they *should* be. Having first-hand

experience and context is valuable both for what you can bring to the

conversation (and given the breadth of Matplotlib's usage, there is a good

chance it is a unique context in any given conversation) and make it easier to

understand where other people are coming from.

Understanding the entire codebase is a long-term project, and nobody expects

you to do this right away. If you are determined to get started with

Matplotlib and want to learn, going through the basic functionality,

choosing something to focus on (3d, testing, documentation, animations, etc.)

and gaining context on this area by reading the issues and pull requests

touching these subjects is a reasonable approach.

is a private gitter_ (chat) room moderated by core Matplotlib developers where

you can get guidance and support for your first few PRs. It's a place where you

can ask questions about anything: how to use git, GitHub, how our PR review

process works, technical questions about the code, what makes for good

documentation or a blog post, how to get involved in community work, or get a

To join, please go to our public gitter_ community channel, and ask to be added

to ``#incubator``. One of our core developers will see your message and

will add you.

GitHub handles 😉. You can reach out to us on gitter_ for any clarifications or

suggestions. We ❤ feedback!

.. _gitter: https://gitter.im/matplotlib/matplotlib