What is opensource.guide?

github/opensource.guide — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-06-24

★ 15,433HTMLAudience · generalComplexity · 1/5LicenseSetup · easy

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((opensource.guide))
    Inputs
      Markdown guides
      Community examples
      Jekyll config
    Outputs
      Static guide site
      Translated pages
    Use Cases
      Start an open source project
      Make first contribution
      Build a community
    Tech Stack
      Jekyll
      HTML
      Markdown

mindmap root((opensource.guide)) Inputs Markdown guides Community examples Jekyll config Outputs Static guide site Translated pages Use Cases Start an open source project Make first contribution Build a community Tech Stack Jekyll HTML Markdown

Click or tap to explore — scroll the page freely

What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Read the guides before starting your first open source project

USE CASE 2

Adapt the contributing-guide template for your own repo

USE CASE 3

Train new maintainers on community and governance best practices

What is it built with?

JekyllHTMLMarkdown

How does it compare?

	github/opensource.guide	federico-busato/modern-cpp-programming	alshedivat/al-folio
Stars	15,433	15,574	15,590
Language	HTML	HTML	HTML
Setup difficulty	easy	easy	easy
Complexity	1/5	1/5	2/5
Audience	general	developer	researcher

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min

Content is the deliverable, building the site locally needs Ruby and Jekyll if you want to preview edits.

Creative Commons BY 4.0: you can reuse and adapt the content for any purpose, including commercial, as long as you give credit.

So what is it?

Open Source Guides is a collection of resources for individuals, communities, and companies who want to learn how to run and contribute to an open-source project. The guides live at opensource.guide and are created and curated by GitHub, though they are not exclusive to GitHub products. The goal of the project was to bring together community best practices, not to promote what GitHub or any single entity thinks is best. To illustrate points, the guides use examples and quotations drawn from the broader open-source community. GitHub started this project after noticing there weren't enough resources for people creating open-source projects from scratch. The site is built using Jekyll, a tool that converts text files into static websites. The content is licensed under CC-BY-4.0, a Creative Commons license that allows reuse with attribution. The repository also includes a legal disclaimer reminding readers that the guides offer practical advice, not legal counsel. Anyone wanting to provide feedback or contribute to the guides can follow the contributing guidelines included in the repository. The initial release was authored and reviewed by a large group of contributors from across the open-source community.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1

Summarize the Starting an Open Source Project guide as a checklist I can paste into a README

Prompt 2

Walk me through running this Jekyll site locally on my Mac to preview a content edit

Prompt 3

Use the Building Community guide to draft a CONTRIBUTING.md for my Python library

Prompt 4

Give me a translation workflow for adding a new language to opensource.guide

Frequently asked questions