contributors
People come back to a project that answers them. contributors covers what to do when someone claims an issue, opens a PR, gets merged, or goes quiet.
What happens when
Section titled “What happens when”| Event | What GitHard does |
|---|---|
| Someone claims an issue | Assigns them and welcomes them. On their first time, it tells them that fork CI waits for approval and to use Update branch if main moves on. |
| An outside PR opens | Replies the same day: thanks for the specific change, and when the review will happen. |
| It merges | Thanks them by @handle in the release notes, and comments on the PR when the release ships. |
| 30 days quiet | A person checks in. |
| 60 days quiet | Close it with thanks, or finish it and credit them. |
There’s no stale bot. If your repo has one, GitHard suggests removing it.
Reactions
Section titled “Reactions”One per item, only on other people’s posts: 🚀 for a claim or a new PR, 👀 while reviewing, 🎉 on merge, ❤️ for going beyond the ask, 👍 to acknowledge. A reaction never replaces a reply someone is owed.
Who’s still waiting
Section titled “Who’s still waiting”GitHard runs this at the start of each session. To run it yourself from a clone of GitHard:
bash ~/githard/skills/contributors/unanswered.sh OWNER/REPOIt lists outside PRs with no maintainer reply yet (unanswered), and PRs quiet for 30 days (check-in) or 60 days (decide). Bots and maintainers’ own PRs are skipped. If GitHub doesn’t answer, it exits 2 and says unknown, never “nothing owed”.
An AI policy
Section titled “An AI policy”If your repo has no AI_POLICY.md, GitHard offers a template that welcomes AI help as long as it’s disclosed, with the contributor responsible for every line. Whether to ban AI help is your call, so it asks.