Non-code Contributions

Looking for a good entrance into the project? or to do something different? There are many ways to contribute to the the Kubernetes project without having to have coding experience: issue triage, writing documentation, joining the release team and much more.

This section is new and in progress. Expect this document to change often.

If you are interested in helping define and structure this work, check the weekly meeting notes for information on how to get involved. You can also find us in the SIG Contributor Experience Slack channel.

All contributors welcome, new and old!

What is this?

The list below is meant to help non-code contributors find areas of the Kubernetes project where their expertise can be best utilized. The goal of this is to both provide a starting guide for anyone looking to become a contributor not necessarily writing code, and also to fill any needs that the SIGs have that might not currently be filled by code-focused contributors.

This list is meant to be used by both new contributors looking for a good entrance into the project, and current contributors who would like to do something different.

Are you interested in any of the roles below? Come chat with us on Slack!

Project general roles

These are roles that either span the project as a whole, or span several areas of the project. Most of the roles below can be considered “good-first-roles”.

SIG-specific roles

These are roles that are important to each and every SIG within the Kubernetes project. If you are interested in a specific topic within the project, you can contribute in several different ways for that specific SIG.

  • Documentation
    • Common documentation for the SIG expertise area
    • Updates
      • Reviewing/logging technical ownership for documentation that might need updating
    • Translation
  • UX/UI Design
  • Release team roles
    • All roles have shadows for onboarding new members
  • Project management
    • Confirming ownership of tasks, issues, objects, etc
      • Rectifying “owned by everyone, so owned by no-one”
  • Pull requests
    • PR triage & labeling
    • Editing PR text: release note, statement
  • Events
    • Organizing/helping run Face-to-Face meetings for SIGs/WGs/subprojects
    • Putting together SIG Intros & Deep-dives for KubeCon/CloudNativeCon
  • Managing & Uploading Recordings to YouTube

Non-Code Tasks in Primarily-Code roles

These are roles that are not code-based, but require knowledge of either general coding, or specific domain knowledge of the Kubernetes code base.

  • Documentation
    • Documenting new features
  • Some release roles
    • Managing release notes
  • Github management (Tags, repos, etc)

Post-Code Roles

These are roles that are not code-based, but require knowledge of either general coding, or specific domain knowledge of the Kubernetes code base.

  • Technical project leadership
    • Specifically, SIG-Architecture and Steering Committee
  • Some release roles
    • Release Lead, Features Lead, etc
  • Mentoring new contributors