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Start Here Contributor Guide

If you want to help grow Agentic Engineering Playbook, start here before opening a pull request.

What this repo is optimizing for​

  • practical, project-first AI engineering education
  • production-shaped examples instead of toy demos
  • chapters that stay close to runnable systems
  • contributor workflows that are clear enough for first-time open-source contributors

Best first contributions​

  • clarify an explanation that is currently too abstract
  • improve a diagram or add a missing Mermaid view
  • add a stronger project tie-in to an existing chapter
  • fix a broken link, stale command, or navigation gap
  • improve one starter project README, eval note, or smoke-check explanation

Read these pages first​

Choose your contribution lane​

Docs and curriculum​

Best for:

  • learners
  • technical writers
  • engineers who want a focused first PR

Examples:

  • improve a chapter introduction
  • add an enterprise example
  • add a practical exercise
  • tighten terminology around RAG, MCP, evals, or observability

Diagrams and visual explanation​

Best for:

  • developers who think in systems
  • contributors comfortable with Mermaid or architecture sketches

Examples:

  • add a missing sequence diagram
  • improve a project architecture map
  • turn a dense paragraph into a visual explanation

Starter projects and checks​

Best for:

  • engineers who want to touch code
  • contributors comfortable with TypeScript, Node.js, Angular, or local validation

Examples:

  • improve smoke checks
  • fix a type error
  • add a safer configuration pattern
  • improve README guidance for one project

Local workflow​

npm install
npm run build

Project checks are listed in the repository README on GitHub:

Run only the checks relevant to the area you changed unless your PR affects multiple projects.

What good contributions look like​

  • focused scope
  • practical learner benefit
  • explicit commands and file references
  • no fake claims about usage, students, traction, or results
  • no unnecessary complexity added to beginner-facing material

Before opening a PR​

  1. Make sure the change improves a real learner or contributor experience.
  2. Check whether a new page needs to be added to sidebars.ts.
  3. Run npm run build from the repo root.
  4. Run related project checks where your change touches starter code or project docs.
  5. Explain the learner or community impact in the PR description.