# Contributing guidelines

Welcome to AWS Docs! We thrive on your contribution. :heart:

## Get started
Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the following:
1. [Working with issues](#working-with-issues)
1. [Authoring code](#authoring-code)
1. [Disclaimers](#disclaimers)

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## Working with issues

We use [GitHub Issues](https://github.com/features/issues) to organize all significant work. Any external contributions will
first take the form of issues.

### Existing issues
Briefly review [all open issues](https://github.com/awsdocs/aws-doc-sdk-examples/issues) for the following reasons:
* Search for contribution opportunities
* Verify that your contribution idea is not already in progress

### Create an issue (~5 min)
To create a new issue, use the following two (2) templates:
* [Bug report](https://github.com/awsdocs/aws-doc-sdk-examples/issues/new?assignees=octocat&labels=type%2Fbug&template=bug.yaml&title=%5BBug%5D%3A+%3CDESCRIPTIVE+TITLE+HERE%3E)
* [Feature request](https://github.com/awsdocs/aws-doc-sdk-examples/issues/new?assignees=octocat&labels=type%2Fenhancement&template=enhancement.yaml&title=%5BEnhancement%5D%3A+%3CDESCRIPTIVE+TITLE+HERE%3E)

All contributions that are not bug fixes must be pre-approved by the maintainers.

### Close an issue
At any time, you can close issues that you create yourself. 

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## Authoring code
Follow these steps when you are ready to begin writing code:
1. [Fork the repository](https://help.github.com/articles/fork-a-repo/).
2. Modify your fork using the CLI or [GitHub flow](https://docs.github.com/en/get-started/quickstart/github-flow).
3. When your fork contains your finished and tested code, [create a pull request](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-pull-request-from-a-fork/).

#### Exception for minor bug fixes
For single-line bug fixes, you can optionally [edit the file directly on the Github website](https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/working-with-files/managing-files/editing-files)
without needing to create a fork.

## Best practices for coding
1. Follow [coding best practices](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coding_best_practices) such 
as [DRY](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/what-is-dry-development) and [SOLID](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/conceptual-articles/s-o-l-i-d-the-first-five-principles-of-object-oriented-design) where possible.
2. Carefully read the pull request template and follow it closely.
3. Don't include AWS account identifiers or secret keys in your examples.

---

## Disclaimers
Review the following important disclaimers before contributing to this project.

### Conduct disclaimer
This project abides by the [Amazon Open Source Code of Conduct](https://aws.github.io/code-of-conduct). For additional help, contact [opensource-codeofconduct@amazon.com](mailto:opensource-codeofconduct@amazon.com).

### Security disclaimer
If you discover a potential security issue, please notify AWS Security via our [vulnerability reporting page](http://aws.amazon.com/security/vulnerability-reporting/). Please do **not** create a public issue on GitHub.

### Licensing disclaimer
See the [LICENSE](https://github.com/awsdocs/aws-doc-sdk-examples/blob/main/LICENSE) file for this project's licensing.