---
title: Contributing to a New Relic open source project
source: https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/licenses/open-source/contribute
---

Watch [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zalIudBF6A) to understand a standard fork-and-pull-request code contribution workflow.

For those newer to open source contribution at New Relic, the following points encapsulate the major steps and issues. For command line description of this workflow, [consult this documentation](https://gist.github.com/tangollama/5d9d63fef0ed4498fb5fbb057bb5983d).

Your app is now sending browser data to New Relic. View this data in New Relic, under **Browser**.

## Fork a Repository

Instead of requiring write access to the repository, a fork allows you the ability to modify code and contribute changes via a pull request.
![sample new relic repo stats](https://docs.newrelic.com/images/nr1-browser-analyzer-repo.webp "sample new relic repo")
Navigate to the repository in GitHub and click the **Fork** button.

## Implement changes on your Fork

Now that you have a copy of the repository, implement changes against your forked copy of the code but executing the clone command, and modify your copy of the code.

### Commit message guidance

As you commit changes to your fork, you want to ensure that your commit messages are human-readable, relevant, descriptive, and follow a standard methodology so that tooling can automate the creation of changelogs.

To support that objective, New Relic open source projects seek to follow the Conventional Commit specification for git commit messages.

**Ensure that your:**

-   Commit messages follow the [Convention Commit specification](https://www.conventionalcommits.org/en/v1.0.0-beta.2/#specification)
-   Commits tie back to a specific [Issue](https://help.github.com/en/github/managing-your-work-on-github/about-issues) in the upstream repository (**Hint:** If there isn't an issue for your change, add it yourself :))

## Initiate a Pull Request

Once you've committed your changes to your fork, you can now issue a [Pull Request](https://help.github.com/en/github/collaborating-with-issues-and-pull-requests/about-pull-requests) back to the New Relic project.

## Accept the New Relic CLA (Contributor License Agreement)

Finally, if you've not contributed to a New Relic open source project before, we're going to prompt you to electronically sign our [Contributor License Agreement (CLA)](https://opensource.newrelic.com/cla), highlighting that you're freely providing code for the benefit of the open source project and community.