Maintaining the project

This guide walks you, as a maintainer, through reviewing and merging pull requests. We’ve organized it to follow the typical GitHub Pull Request (PR) workflow.

To begin, all pull requests should come from a forked repository, not from branches in the main repo (with the exception of Dependabot security updates and all-contributor bot PRs).

Before You Merge - Quick Checklist

Before merging any PR (except all-contributors bot PRs), make sure:

✅ CI checks are green: All tests, linting, and link checks pass
✅ Your branch is current: Synced with main (merge or rebase)
✅ Comments are generally resolved: All review feedback has been addressed
✅ Issues are linked: Mention related issues referenced in PR description
✅ PR has a clear description: Follows Angular commit convention and explains changes
✅ You have the right approvals: See approval requirements below

PR Approval Requirements

No approval required

All-contributors bot PRs: Any maintainer can merge without approval
Dependabot PRs: Any maintainer can merge once CI is green

One approval required

One approval from another maintainer is sufficient for most PRs. Most PRs fall here:

Documentation updates
Small bug fixes
Maintenance work
Non-breaking changes

Two approvals required

In some cases we may want a more thorough review and multiple maintainers involved in a review. Please seek two approvals (if possible) for large or sensitive changes such as:

API changes
Major refactors
Significant security fixes
Changes affecting the bot’s API and our users

Maintainer Feedback & New Issues

We value an fluid and agile development process here at the all-contributors bot. If you find an issue during the review that is outside the scope of the PR, please create a new issue to track it instead of blocking the PR from being merged. This allows us to keep the project moving forward and also preserves precious volunteer maintainer time.

If a PR is merged but you you’d like to see a follow-up PR that adjusts things, no worries, simply open an issue about that follow-up and submit a new PR, if needed.

Merging PRs: Use Squash and Merge

Always use “Squash and Merge” when you merge a PR. Combined with angular commit conventions, squash and merge will keep our commit history clean and meaningful.

Why squash merge?

We use the squash-merge approach because it provides:

Clean history: One commit per PR makes the history easy to read
Meaningful commits: Each commit represents a complete feature or fix
Easy reverts: Can revert an entire feature with one command
Better changelogs: Conventional commits enable automated changelog generation

Format the squash commit message

Follow the Conventional Commits format when writing your squash commit message and when adding new commits to a PR.

<type>(<scope>): <description>

[optional body]

[optional footer]

Common types in the conventional commit spec include:

feat:: New feature
fix:: Bug fix
docs:: Documentation changes
style:: Code style changes (formatting, no logic change)
refactor:: Code refactoring
test:: Adding or updating tests
chore:: Maintenance tasks, dependency updates

Examples:

feat(api): add support for custom headers
fix(parser): handle empty strings correctly
docs(readme): update installation instructions
chore(deps): bump tailwindcss from 4.17.20 to 4.17.21

Merging Your Own PRs

As a maintainer, please avoid merging your own PRs when possible. Having another set of eyes review your work is good practice!

If you must self-merge (urgent/security/critical fix):

Request a quick review if someone is available, OR
Leave a note in the PR explaining why you’re self-merging

After Merging

Add contributors to the all-contributors table

When you merge a PR that is not yours, be sure to add the contributor using our friendly all-contributors bot ✨:

@all-contributors please add <github-username> for <contribution-roles>

We ask contributors to do this themselves, but they often forget or are not comfortable doing so. Please check that they have added themselves, and if not, add them if needed! If they have added themselves be sure to merge the associated all-contributors PR!

Need Help with Reviews?

If you are waiting on a PR that you submitted and no one has responded or left you a review:

Ping maintainers who’ve been active on related issues
As a last resort, ping the @maintainers team

Remember, this process helps us maintain code quality while keeping things our friendly bot’s documentation and infrastructure moving forward. When in doubt, ask for a second opinion!

And also, be sure to always follow our Code of Conduct.