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Contributing to k0s#

Thank you for taking the time to contribute to k0s! This page gives you an overview of how to contribute, and where to find the details.

Please follow the k0sproject community's code of conduct in all your interactions with the project.

If you have found a security vulnerability, don't disclose it publicly. Report it confidentially, as described in the security policy.

Contributing to the repository#

K0s is more than its code. Contributions to the documentation are as welcome and as valuable as contributions to the code base.

Seek early feedback#

If there's more than one way to approach your change, reach out via GitHub issues or other community channels before you start building it. Alternatives to a feature and different implementation paths are easier to compare in the abstract than in a finished diff. Discussing early also shows whether a change fits the project's direction, and whether someone is already working on it.

Code#

The code guidelines collect the conventions of the k0s code base beyond what the linters enforce, such as comments, error handling, logging, and how to maintain compatibility across versions.

If your change affects how k0s is used or configured, update the documentation along with it.

The testing page explains how to run the linters, unit tests, and integration tests locally, how to debug CI failures, and how to run CI on your own fork.

Documentation#

The documentation lives under the docs directory and is published to https://docs.k0sproject.io. Fixing a typo, clarifying a confusing section, or writing a guide for something that isn't covered yet are all great contributions.

The documentation page explains how the docs are built, how to add a page to the navigation, and how to preview your changes locally.

Pull requests#

All changes, to the documentation and to the code alike, arrive as pull requests. The GitHub workflow page walks you through the process of

  • forking the repository,
  • writing commits that serve one purpose each and are signed off to certify the Developer Certificate of Origin,
  • opening the pull request,
  • and reworking your commits after a review round.

Before opening a pull request, run the linters and related tests locally, as described on the testing page. CI runs on a pull request only after a maintainer has approved it, so catching problems locally saves a round trip.

Contributing beyond the repository#

Not every contribution is a change to this repository. There are many ways to help k0s and the k0sproject community as a whole:

  • Report bugs via GitHub issues.
    A clear report with steps to reproduce, the k0s version, and relevant logs is a valuable contribution on its own.
  • Help others in GitHub issues and on #k0s-users.
    Answering a question, sharing how you solved a problem, or adding what you know to an issue someone else reported helps the community.
  • Help the maintainers by testing and reviewing pull requests.
    Trying out a change in your environment, or reading it with a fresh pair of eyes, is valuable feedback that speeds up the review.
  • Share your experience.
    Write a blog post, give a talk, or tell us about your use case. Add yourself to the list of adopters, and let us know on Slack, so we can spread the word.
  • Join the community calls.
    Discuss ideas, ask questions, or just get to know the people behind k0s.

License#

By contributing, you agree that your contributions will be licensed as follows:

  • All content residing under the "docs/" directory of this repository is licensed under "Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0 International" (CC-BY-SA-4.0). See docs/LICENSE for details.
  • Content outside of the above mentioned directories or restrictions above is available under the "Apache License 2.0".