# Contribute to this book

You want to make this book better? That is awesome!

The InnerSource Patterns book itself is an [open source project](https://github.com/InnerSourceCommons/InnerSourcePatterns), and welcomes any form of contribution. Nothing is too small!

No matter if you want to help us fix grammar/spelling, improve the design, or contribute entirely new patterns based on the InnerSource experiences that you have made at your workplace. We love all of that! :)

If you have never made a contribution to an open source project before, know that the InnerSource Patterns community is group of friendly people and with that a safe place to try it out.

## Before you get started

The sources for the InnerSource Patterns and this book are kept in a repository on GitHub. Therefore you will need a GitHub user account to make edits and suggestions to this book. If you don't have one yet, head over to [github.com](https://github.com) and create an account for free.

## Different ways to contribute

Here a few ways in which you can contribute:

1. fix spelling, formatting, or other glitches that you notice in this book
2. improve the content of an existing pattern (e.g. by adding a short description of how you are using a pattern as a *Known Instance*)
3. contribute a new pattern, describing how you have overcome InnerSource-related challenges in your organization

For (1) and (2) above you can simply hit the **Edit on GitHub** link that you see at the top of each page in this book. This will take you straight to the respective file in our GitHub repository, where you can suggest your changes.

For (3) you need to clone the [InnerSourcePatterns](https://github.com/InnerSourceCommons/InnerSourcePatterns) repository, and add a new file with your suggested pattern. When making such larger contributions to this book please review our [CONTRIBUTING.md](https://github.com/InnerSourceCommons/InnerSourcePatterns/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md) and also our [Contributor Handbook](https://github.com/InnerSourceCommons/InnerSourcePatterns/blob/main/meta/contributor-handbook.md).

## License of Contributions

The contents of this repository are licensed under [CC-BY-SA-4.0](https://github.com/InnerSourceCommons/InnerSourcePatterns/blob/main/LICENSE.txt). By contributing to this repository, you grant us (and everyone else for that matter) the right to use your contribution in accordance with that license.


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# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://patterns.innersourcecommons.org/contribute.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.