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Contributing to MicroForge

First of all, thank you for your interest in contributing to MicroForge 🎉
Open-source survives because people like you show up and help. This guide is here to make that process as smooth as possible, even if this is your first-ever contribution.

Please read this document before starting. It explains:

  • How to set up the project locally
  • How to pick an issue and create a branch
  • How to test your changes
  • How to open a Pull Request (PR)

📌 What is MicroForge?

MicroForge is an enterprise-grade, cloud-native microservices platform that demonstrates:

  • Polyglot microservices (Go, Java, Python, Node.js, React)
  • Docker-based local development
  • Kubernetes-native production deployment
  • DevOps best practices and observability patterns

If you want to learn real-world microservices + DevOps, this project is a great place to contribute.

📖 Main documentation:
👉 https://github.com/Manoj-14/MicroForge

🧑‍💻 Who Can Contribute?

Anyone.

  • First-time open-source contributors ✅
  • Students learning Docker, Kubernetes, or backend/frontend development ✅
  • Experienced developers looking to improve documentation, tooling, or services ✅

If something is confusing, that itself is a valid thing to fix.

🛠️ Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have the following installed:

Required

Optional (for Kubernetes work)

You do not need to know every language used in this repo. Many contributions are docs, config, or small fixes.

🚀 Local Development Setup (Beginner Friendly)

1️⃣ Fork the Repository

Click the Fork button on GitHub: 👉 https://github.com/Manoj-14/MicroForge

This creates your own copy of the repository.

2️⃣ Clone Your Fork

git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/MicroForge.git
cd MicroForge/src

3️⃣ Start the Project Using Docker Compose

This runs all services together.

docker-compose up -d

⏳ The first run may take a few minutes.

Once done, open:

Frontend: http://localhost:3000

If the page loads, your setup works 🎉

🐛 Picking an Issue

Look at open issues: 👉 https://github.com/Manoj-14/MicroForge/issues

Labels to look for:

good first issue
documentation
help wanted

👉 Before starting work, comment on the issue and ask to be assigned.

Caution:

Never work directly on main branch.
All pull requests should target the stage branch.

🌿 Branching Guidelines

Always create a new branch. Never work directly on main.

Branch Naming Convention feature/<short-description> fix/<short-description> docs/<short-description>

Example

git checkout -b docs/add-contributing-guide

✅ Making Changes

  • Keep changes focused and small
  • Follow existing folder structure

For documentation:

  • Use clear language
  • Assume the reader is a beginner

For code:

  • Avoid unrelated refactors
  • Add comments where helpful

🧪 Local Validation (Before You Push)

Before opening a PR:

  • Ensure Docker services start without errors
  • For documentation-only changes:
  • Ensure Markdown renders correctly on GitHub

For code changes:

  • Service should build/run locally
  • No breaking changes to other services

📝 Commit Message Guidelines

Write clear, meaningful commit messages.

Good examples

  • docs: add contributing guidelines
  • fix: correct port mismatch in docker-compose
  • feat: add health endpoint to metadata service

🔁 Opening a Pull Request (PR)

  • Push your branch:
git push origin <branch-name>
  • Open a PR against the main branch:
👉 https://github.com/Manoj-14/MicroForge/pulls

Fill out the PR template carefully. Refer the PR_TEMPLATE.md

📋 What Maintainers Look For

  • Clear description of what and why
  • Related issue linked (which can be linked using "#" followed by the issue number)
  • No unnecessary changes
  • Beginner-friendly documentation where applicable

🧭 Code of Conduct

  • Please be respectful and constructive.
  • This project follows standard open-source collaboration etiquette.
  • If unsure, default to kindness.

🙌 Need Help?

If you’re stuck:

  • Comment on the issue you’re working on
  • Ask questions in the PR by tagging the authors or maintainers using "@"
  • Explain what you tried
  • Create an issue if the problem persists to reach out to the community for help

Thank you for contributing to MicroForge 🚀 We appreciate your time and effort!