ST009: HasContributing

Overview

Property Value
ID ST009
Name HasContributing
Group structure
Severity WARNING

Description

Checks for the presence of a CONTRIBUTING.md file (or similar) in the package root directory.

A CONTRIBUTING file helps contributors understand how to contribute to the project, including development setup, coding standards, and the pull request process.

What it checks

The check looks for any of these files:

  • CONTRIBUTING.md
  • CONTRIBUTING.rst
  • CONTRIBUTING.txt
  • CONTRIBUTING
  • contributing.md

Why it matters

  • Onboarding - Helps new contributors get started quickly
  • Consistency - Ensures contributions follow project standards
  • Community - Shows the project is open to contributions
  • pyOpenSci - Required for pyOpenSci review submission

How to fix

Create a CONTRIBUTING.md file in your repository root:

# Contributing

Thank you for your interest in contributing!

## Development Setup

1. Clone the repository
2. Install development dependencies: `pip install -e ".[dev]"`
3. Run tests: `pytest`

## Making Changes

1. Create a new branch for your changes
2. Make your changes and add tests
3. Run the test suite to ensure everything passes
4. Submit a pull request

## Code Style

This project uses [ruff](https://docs.astral.sh/ruff/) for linting.

Auto-fix

This check supports auto-fix:

pycmdcheck fix --only ST009

Configuration

Skip this check

[tool.pycmdcheck]
skip = ["ST009"]

CLI

pycmdcheck --skip ST009