How to contribute to Matplotlib?

Have questions about contributing to Matplotlib? Ask them here! From how do I get started to what’s involved in a pull request, and everything in between-this is the place to get oriented.

Step 1: Run locally

When developing Matplotlib, sources must be downloaded, built, and installed into a local environment on your machine. You can either:

Step 2: Find something to work on

We strongly recommend that new contributors tackle unassigned issues labeled good first issue.

Adding a keyword you are most interested in your search might help you finding something you are passionate about faster (e.g. style, image etc).

Step 3: Develop the fix

Develop the fix following the coding guidelines.

We also encourage you to use this discourse space to clarify things and ask for help.

Step 4: Submit a pull request

Please refer to our checklist before submitting a pull request.

Get the pull request reviewed and please be involved in a discussion - you might consider subscribing to notifications on the page of the PR.

Step 5: Don’t stop

Congratulations! Hopefully, your PR was merged and now you are a proud contributor. We thank you for that. But there are still a lot of things to do. Return to the 2nd step and start the journey again.

Acknowledgements this guide was drafted by @eliasnema and is inspired by the Mozilla Contributing Guide