CONTRIBUTING.md

Octicons Contribution Guidelines

Thank you for your interest in contributing to Octicons! We are currently only accepting submissions from GitHub staff and only include icons that are used in the GitHub UI.

Icon request process

1. Icon request is made

• Icon requests are made using the issue template in the primer/octicons repo. If the icon being requested is for a product/feature that has not yet been release, please use the template found in the github/design-systems repo.
• Once received, the issue will be placed in the ❓ Icon requests (inbox) column of the Octicons project board
• Icons in the inbox will be triaged by a maintainer from the octicons team. Maintainers should reply with a comment on the issue and then move the issue to the 💬 Responded column of the Octicons project board

2. Assigning icons

• Each new icon request will initially be discussed async within our #octicons channel on Slack.
  • If the icon requires further discussion or needs more context before assigning, a maintainer will leave a comment on the issue requesting more information from the original requestor and the issue will be moved to the ⚠️ To discuss column of the Octicons project board
  • If a currently exisiting icon can be used to clearly convey the correct metaphor a suggestion will be made in the icon request issue and the issue will be moved to the ⚠️ To discuss column of the Octicons project board
  • If it is decided that a new icon needs to be created the issue will be moved to the 📫 To do column of the Octicons project board
• Icon requests will be assigned to a designer in the weekly Octicons sync held on Wednesday's
  • Once an icon has been assigned it is up to assigned designer to be responsible for communicating the icon's status.
  • Other designers are welcome to collaborate on any icons

3. Icon design, review, and communication

• Once design has been started on an icon, the request issue will be moved to the ✒️In Progress column of the Octicons project board
• Designers should design the icon in Figma and when ready for review, use the Octicons Push plugin to create a PR
  • After a PR is created link to the PR in the icon request issue and move the issue to the 👁‍🗨 Ready for Review column of the Octicons project board
  • All review communication will be contained within the PR
  • PRs need approval from the icon requestor (stakeholder) and at least one designer on the octicons maintainer team

4. Icon request completed

• When an icon request PR has been approved by both the requestor and a member of octicons maintainer team, the icon request is moved to the 🔼 Push to repo column of the Octicons project board
• After a new release has been made, the new icons that were added will have their request issues moved to the ✔ Done column

Adding or updating an icon

Follow these steps to add or update an icon.

1. Clone the repository

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/primer/octicons

# Navigate to the newly cloned directory
cd octicons

If you don't have write access to the primer/octicons repository, instead of cloning the repository directly, you'll need to fork the project, clone your fork, and configure the remotes:

# Clone your fork of the repository
git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/octicons

# Navigate to the newly cloned directory
cd octicons

# Assign the original repo to a remote called "upstream"
git remote add upstream https://github.com/primer/octicons

2. Create a new feature branch

git checkout -b <branch-name>

3. Add or update SVG files in the /icons directory

4. Add or update keywords in keywords.json

{
  "mark-github": ["octocat", "brand", "github", "logo"],
+ "your-icon": ["foo", "bar"]
}

5. Commit and push changes

git add .
git commit -m <message>
git push

6. Create a pull request

Use GitHub to create a pull request for your branch. In your pull request description, be sure to mention where the icon will be used and any relevant timeline information.

If everything looks good, a maintainer will approve and merge the pull request when appropriate. After the pull request is merged, your icon will be available in the next Octicons release.

Releasing changes

Once submitted changes have been agreed upon, these instructions will guide maintainers through releasing changes.

1. Create a release branch in the primer/octicons repository.

git checkout -b release-x.y.z

In the context of Octicons, the version number is updated as follows:

• Breaking changes to the library or workflow, renaming or removing an icon would all be considered a major update.
• Adding a new icon would be considered a minor update.
• Fixing an icon would be considered a patch.

Reach out in the #design-systems Slack channel if you're unsure.

2. Update the CHANGELOG describing the changes in this release.

When adding changes, be sure to provide a link to any of the relevant PRs merged into the release.

3. Update the version in code base

Find and replace the version number of the current release with the version number of the new release. Exclude anything that does relate directly to the Octicons version. Examples of excluded items include yargs-parser and testing-library_react.

4. Create a release PR

When creating the release PR, include the changes written in the CHANGELOG in the description. We advise changing any bulleted item into a checkbox item. After each update is merged into the release PR, check each item as complete.

5. Merge

When all of the checks have passed and the release PR has been approved, merge the new release to the main branch.

6. Draft new release

• On the Code tab, click Releases in the repo sidebar.
• Click Draft a new release.
• Tag the release with the new version number (e.g. v10.1.0).
• Title the release with the new version number and paste in the changes that were added to the CHANGELOG.
• Click Publish release.

Example:

🎉 Congratulations! The new release has been published.