Templates

Use this reference when deciding whether to create or align GitHub-facing templates and contributor policy docs.

This reference owns baseline existence and shape. General docs cleanup may keep these files accurate, but the decision to introduce them should follow the repo's collaboration model.

Pull Request Template

Use a compact template for non-trivial repos:

## Summary

## Changed

## Risks

## Verification

## Complexity

Guidance:

• Summary names the net change.
• Changed lists files or surfaces by intent, not a noisy commit log.
• Risks names what could regress and what reviewers should verify.
• Verification lists meaningful local, CI, preview, or live proof.
• Complexity is reduced, neutral, or increased; justify increased complexity.

Avoid long template checklists that authors learn to ignore.

Issue Templates

Create issue templates only when they improve triage.

Useful split:

• bug report
• feature request
• support or question, only when the repo accepts that kind of issue

Security vulnerabilities should route to SECURITY.md, not public issues.

Security Policy

SECURITY.md should be short and private-first:

• Tell reporters not to open public issues for vulnerabilities.
• Provide the private reporting route.
• State what information helps triage.
• Avoid promising response times unless the maintainer can meet them.
• Keep product- or organization-specific contact details in the owning overlay, not in this generic base skill.

Contributor Docs

CONTRIBUTING.md should explain:

• setup
• validation commands
• branch and PR workflow
• release/deploy documentation pointers, when contributors need them

Keep release/deploy mechanics in deeper docs such as docs/DISTRIBUTION.md or deployment runbooks. Do not copy the same workflow checklist into README, CONTRIBUTING, templates, and AGENTS.

Repository Metadata

Repository descriptions and topics should help humans route the repo quickly:

• one-sentence description
• homepage or docs URL when there is a canonical public surface
• topics that reflect language, framework, artifact type, and purpose

Do not encode private org, client, machine, or unrelated repo facts into public metadata.