Day 5: The Guidance arrives... Finally!
Source: Dev.to
Getting Started with GNOME Contributions
First of all, thanks for reading! After a long period of feeling ignored by maintainers—not because they don’t pay attention, but because a flood of new issues kept appearing in the app I was trying to contribute to—I decided to look for something else in GNOME. I searched for issues tagged newcomers, but the only one I found was the one I had already fixed. Feeling discouraged, I closed the window and turned my attention elsewhere.
Discovering the GNOME Handbook
Yesterday (5 Feb) I opened GitLab again, still found nothing, and started searching “how does contributing to GNOME work?”. The fourth result was the GNOME Project Handbook, which completely changed my perspective. The handbook is meant for anyone—from newcomers to maintainers.
Scrolling further, I found the GNOME Welcome page, specifically aimed at beginners. It even mentioned a Matrix chat for newcomers, which I hadn’t known existed. I joined the chat and introduced myself:
Hi there, I am Meet and I am looking forward to contributing to GNOME. Where can I find some instructions on the flow of making a contribution? (something like first create a PR or tag a maintainer in a PR to get assigned and then something else and then the contribution is merged into the main repo)
Two maintainers responded quickly and explained the actual contribution flow, which differs from what I expected.
The GNOME Contribution Flow
- Find an issue you think you can help with.
- Check whether someone is already working on it (e.g., no recent comments for 2‑3 weeks may indicate it’s still open).
- Create your fix in a fork of the GNOME app repository.
- Open a Merge Request (MR) and include the issue link or number in the description (GitLab automatically links the MR and the issue).
- Address any review feedback and make required changes.
- The maintainer merges the request.
- Congratulations! You have successfully contributed to GNOME. 🎉
- Repeat for another issue.
Armed with this knowledge, I’m ready to submit a merge request for the one‑liner fix that has been waiting for almost a month. I’ll share the outcome in upcoming posts.
Encouragement to Start Your Own Blog Series
If you’ve made it this far, consider launching your own blog series—whether about open‑source contributions, college experiences, or a personal dev diary. Writing regularly helps you reflect on your learning journey and can inspire others. I’ll definitely be a daily reader if you do!
Credits
Image credit: Tenor
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