Contributing to MDN Web Docs content
Problems with MDN Web Docs are reported as content repo issues. This article helps you find the best issues to work on, based on your expertise and how much time you have available, and outlines the main steps to fixing them.
Note: We get a lot of content bugs — any help you can give in fixing them is very much appreciated!
What we need help with
To help you choose what content issues to work on, we've sorted them using GitHub labels.
The labels below help you find tasks based on estimated effort to complete the task.
| Label | Description |
|---|---|
| effort: small | A task that will probably require little effort, such as fixing a typo, or adding a few sentences of clarification. |
| effort: medium | A task that will probably require non-trivial effort. For example, updating a page to reflect changes to the formal specification. |
| effort: large | A task that will probably require significant and large-scale effort, such as writing new guide and reference pages. |
If you'd prefer to browse your tasks and choose by technology category instead, you can also find content type labels on issues in the content repository.
How you can benefit
- Fixing MDN content bugs is a great way to learn more about web technologies — as you research a problem and create the required content, you will gain a deeper understanding of the subject, and improve your skills.
- As you get more involved in the MDN community, you'll get to know Mozilla staff and other community members, giving you a valuable network of contacts for getting help with your own issues and increasing your visibility.
- Helping to fix problems is largely its own reward, but it will also serve as a record of your open source contributions, demonstrating your expertise in web technologies and possibly even helping you with your course, or job opportunities.
What skills you need
- You need to be knowledgeable in the topic areas that you choose to help with (e.g. JavaScript, CSS).
- Most of the examples and pages that you will help with are written in English, so you should have a reasonable understanding of the English language. But don't worry if your English is not perfect! Our team is more than happy to help clean up any writing.
How to help
- First of all, sign up for a GitHub account, if you don't already have one — you'll need this to communicate on the GitHub issues.
- Next, choose one or more topic areas you'd like to help with. Use the list above to get more information to help you make your selection. If you are not sure what a good choice would be, ask for help in the MDN Web Docs chat rooms.
After you are set up, you can:
- Choose an issue to work on that interests you, and ask us to assign it to you with a comment on the issue.
- If you need any help when you are working on it, feel free to contact us in the MDN Web Docs chat rooms.
- Once you've fixed an issue, ask the submitter for a review and, hopefully, they will tell you whether they think more work is required. We will get involved if needed.
- Once the issue is verified fixed, it can be closed. The person closing the issue can be either the original issue submitter, or an MDN staff member.