Documentation & Non-Code Contributions

🔄 Recall Bridge: In the previous lesson, you learned to write pull requests that get merged — clear descriptions, self-review, and professional feedback responses. Now let’s explore contributions that don’t require application code but are equally valuable.

Not every contribution is a code change. Documentation improvements, issue triage, bug reports, and translations are crucial to open source health — and they’re often the best way to start contributing because they require less deep codebase knowledge.

Documentation Improvements

Documentation is chronically under-maintained in most open source projects. Maintainers know how their software works, so they can’t see their docs through a beginner’s eyes. Your fresh perspective is an advantage.

High-impact documentation contributions:

AI prompt for finding documentation gaps:

I just went through the Getting Started guide for [PROJECT] and had to do these extra steps that weren’t documented: [LIST YOUR STEPS]. Help me draft a documentation PR that: (1) Adds the missing information in the right location, (2) Matches the existing documentation style (tone, formatting, heading structure), (3) Includes a PR description explaining why this change helps new users.

AI prompt for improving existing docs:

Here’s a section of documentation for [PROJECT]: [PASTE SECTION]. Improve it by: (1) Adding a practical code example (the current docs only explain the concept abstractly), (2) Noting any edge cases or common mistakes, (3) Keeping the same tone and formatting style as the original.

README Improvements

A project’s README is its front door. Common improvements:

• Add badges — Build status, version, license, downloads
• Improve installation instructions — Cover more operating systems or package managers
• Add usage examples — Real-world examples that users can copy and adapt
• Create a table of contents — For longer READMEs
• Update outdated information — Deprecated APIs, changed configuration options

Issue Triage

Issue triage means helping organize and clarify bug reports and feature requests. Most projects have more open issues than maintainers can process.

How to help triage:

AI prompt for investigating issues:

A user reported this issue in [PROJECT]: [PASTE ISSUE]. I have the project cloned locally. Help me: (1) Reproduce the issue using the steps they described, (2) If reproducible, narrow down which file/function causes the problem, (3) Draft a comment with my findings — either confirming the bug with additional details or explaining that I couldn’t reproduce it (with my environment details).

Bug Reports

When you find a bug yourself, a well-written bug report is a valuable contribution.

Bug report template:

## Bug Description
One-sentence description of what's wrong.

## Steps to Reproduce
1. Install version X.Y.Z
2. Create a file with this content: [code block]
3. Run this command: [command]
4. Observe: [what happens]

## Expected Behavior
What should happen instead.

## Environment
- OS: macOS 14.5
- Node: v20.11.0
- Package version: 3.2.1

## Additional Context
- First noticed after upgrading from v3.1.0
- Workaround: [if you found one]

✅ Quick Check: You find a bug but also know how to fix it. Should you open just a bug report, just a PR, or both? (Answer: Open the issue first describing the bug, then open a PR that references it (“Fixes #123”). The issue documents the problem for others who experience it, and the PR provides the solution. Some projects require an issue before a PR so maintainers can approve the approach before you write code.)

Translation Contributions

Many projects want multilingual documentation but lack contributors who speak other languages.

Finding translation opportunities:

• Search GitHub for “help wanted” + “translation” + your language
• Check project READMEs for “Translations” sections
• Look for i18n infrastructure (locale files, translation platforms like Crowdin)

Translation workflow:

1. Check the process — Open an issue asking about translation conventions
2. Start with one page — The README or Getting Started guide
3. Get feedback — Let maintainers review quality before continuing
4. Continue incrementally — One page per PR for reviewability

Key Takeaways

• Documentation improvements have the highest impact-to-effort ratio in open source — a missing step in a Getting Started guide wastes minutes for every new user, and your fresh perspective as a newcomer is uniquely valuable because maintainers can’t see their docs through a beginner’s eyes
• Issue triage is one of the most needed and least recognized contributions — asking for reproduction steps, confirming bugs, and linking duplicates frees maintainers to focus on fixing problems instead of playing detective
• Non-code contributions are excellent starting points because they require less deep codebase knowledge, don’t risk breaking functionality, and demonstrate communication skills that maintainers value in long-term contributors

Up Next

In the next lesson, you’ll learn how to build a consistent open source profile — from first-timer to regular contributor to recognized community member.