Quickstart: first contribution

Ensuring that Bitcoin Core remains highly secure software requires reviewers and maintainers scrutinize every contribution, no matter how minor it seems. The best way to avoid wasting the time of reviewers and risking having them ignore your contribution is to read the entire onboarding guide, as described on the main page. However, if you’re going to contribute anyway without reading all of the documentation, this quickstart will guide you to the most relevant parts of the contributor documentation.

This guide is for developers who want to quickly begin contributing to Bitcoin Core but don’t know what to work on or how to get started.

Find an entry point such as a bug an established contributor has tagged as a “good first issue”.
- You may want to quickly mention your planned approach in chat to confirm established contributors agree that it’s a good direction.
- Note on the issue, PR, or other page that you’re working on the problem so others don’t duplicate your work.
To address an issue:
- You will need to build Bitcoin Core optionally with debugging options.
- You may want to write a test that demonstrates your bug and will prove it’s been fixed.
- If you need certain network activity to reproduce your bug, you can test on test networks.
- If you’re trying to find a particular file, learn about Bitcoin Core’s architecture.
- If you encounter confusing code, research the history of that particular code.
To contribute a change:
- Follow project guidelines for effective commits and GitHub PRs.
- Understand the jargon and process other developers will use in evaluating your proposed change.
- Optionally help review contributions from other developers to encourage them to review your contribution.

Many other parts of the contributing guide can help explain how to successfully make your first contribution. If you find yourself stymied at any point, or just curious about Bitcoin Core, please consider reading the full documentation starting from the main page.