# CONTRIBUTE TO OPEN SOURCE (10 outlined steps)

#### CONTRIBUTE TO OPEN SOURCE (10 outlined steps)

I remember when I made, well my first open source contribution to [first-contributions](https://github.com/firstcontributions/first-contributions) and thought I could share the outlined basic steps for contributing as a beginner.

making your first Open-Source contribution

### Why contribute to open source?

Contributing to open source projects comes with it benefits

*   You get to practice with Git and GitHub for version control.
*   This as other contributions to any community builds a sense of belonging
*   Contributing improves your portfolio, as it shows you can collaborate well with others.

### The 10 steps

1.  Open a GitHub account if you don’t have one, if you do sign in
2.  Fork a project you want to contribute to
3.  Clone your fork

git clone [https://github.com/your-username/first-contributions.git](https://github.com/CharlesKasasira/first-contributions.git)

4\. Navigate to the local repository

cd path/to/local\_repository

5\. Create a new branch

git checkout - b branch\_name

6\. Make changes in your local repository

7\. Add and Commit your changes

git add . // this adds all the changes made to the stage

git add filename // an

git commit -m "message goes here"

8\. Push your changes to your fork

git push origin branch\_name

9\. Create a pull request

10\. Review your pull request

Your changes will be reviewed and merged to the main if approved. This is a brief of the process and though it is for beginners, it might not be that friendly to those that have not use git or github before.