Standard code repository files

REVIEW

We maintain a minimum level of documentation in all our project repositories.

A standard set of file are available to copy.

Mandatory files

  • README.md
    A README explains the purpose of the repository, how to build, run and use it.
    See our guidance on writing READMEs
  • CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
    The Code of conduct explains our expectations on behaviour from member of the community.
    It is based on the Contributor Covenant code of conduct
  • CONTRIBUTING.MD
    A brief explanation of how to contribute back to the repository. Closed source projects should amend the issue management section to reference Jira.
  • LICENCE.txt
    We use Apache 2 licence for code and Open Government Licence v3 for content.
  • SECURITY.md
    How to report security issues.
  • SECRETS.md
    Explains how to setup and use required secret detection tools in a repository.

Optional files

  • CHANGELOG.md
    Describes the changes made in each version.

Improve the playbook

If you spot anything factually incorrect with this page or have ideas for improvement, please share your suggestions.

Before you start, you will need a GitHub account. Github is an open forum where we collect feedback.