## Contributing to Caddy

Welcome! Our community focuses on helping others and making Caddy the best it
can be. We gladly accept contributions and encourage you to get involved!


### Join us in chat

Please direct your discussion to the correct room:

- **Dev Chat:** [gitter.im/mholt/caddy](https://gitter.im/mholt/caddy) - to chat
with other Caddy developers
- **Support:**
[gitter.im/caddyserver/support](https://gitter.im/caddyserver/support) - to give
and get help
- **General:**
[gitter.im/caddyserver/general](https://gitter.im/caddyserver/general) - for
anything about Web development


### Bug reports

First, please [search this repository](https://github.com/mholt/caddy/search?q=&type=Issues&utf8=%E2%9C%93)
with a variety of keywords to ensure your bug is not already reported.

If not, [open an issue](https://github.com/mholt/caddy/issues) and answer the
questions so we can understand and reproduce the problematic behavior.

The burden is on you to convince us that it is actually a bug in Caddy. This is
easiest to do when you write clear, concise instructions so we can reproduce
the behavior (even if it seems obvious). The more detailed and specific you are,
the faster we will be able to help you. Check out
[How to Report Bugs Effectively](http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html).

Please be kind. :smile: Remember that Caddy comes at no cost to you, and you're
getting free help. If we helped you, please consider
[donating](https://caddyserver.com/donate) - it keeps us motivated!


### Minor improvements and new tests

Submit [pull requests](https://github.com/mholt/caddy/pulls) at any time. Make
sure to write tests to assert your change is working properly and is thoroughly
covered. We'll ask most pull requests to be
[squashed](http://gitready.com/advanced/2009/02/10/squashing-commits-with-rebase.html),
especially with small commits.


### Proposals, suggestions, ideas, new features

First, please [search](https://github.com/mholt/caddy/search?q=&type=Issues&utf8=%E2%9C%93)
with a variety of keywords to ensure your suggestion/proposal is new.

If so, you may open either an issue or a pull request for discussion and
feedback.

The advantage of issues is that you don't have to spend time actually
implementing your idea, but you should still describe it thoroughly. The
advantage of a pull request is that we can immediately see the impact the change
will have on the project, what the code will look like, and how to improve it.
The disadvantage of pull requests is that they are unlikely to get accepted
without significant changes, or it may be rejected entirely. Don't worry, that
won't happen without an open discussion first.

If you are going to spend significant time implementing code for a pull request,
best to open an issue first and "claim" it and get feedback before you invest
a lot of time.


### Collaborator status

If your pull request is merged, congratulations! You're technically a
collaborator. We may also grant you "Collaborator status" which means you can
push to the repository and merge other pull requests. We hope that you will
stay involved by reviewing pull requests, submitting more of your own, and
resolving issues as you are able to. Thanks for making Caddy amazing!


### Vulnerabilities

If you've found a vulnerability that is serious, please email me: Matthew dot 
Holt at Gmail. If it's not a big deal, a pull request will probably be faster.


## Thank you

Thanks for your help! Caddy would not be what it is today without your
contributions.