README.md
file, identifying the purpose of the software and its creators, linking to documentation, providing screenshots (if relevant), a link to an example instance of the software (if relevant), a link to API documentation (if relevant), and a link to the license file. If the software is the work of an organization, also provide a link back to a page on that organization’s website to demonstrate the software’s provenance.LICENSE
file, specifying the full licensing terms.CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
file, defining the standards for the community, per GitHub’s specs. USDR-originated projects should use the Contributor Covenant.CONTRIBUTING.md
file, describing how to contribute to the project (if, indeed, contributions are welcome). It should make clear that all contributors’ work, when incorporated, will be released under the repo's license.package.json
, requirements.txt
, composer.json
, etc.) Major functionality in the software/source code must be documented. Individual methods should be documented inline using comments that permit the use of documentation-generation tools, such as JSDoc.README.md
file should provide (or link to) step-by-step instructions for running the software locally, and likewise provide step-by-step instructions for deploying to a production or hosted environment. When relevant, infrastructure should be defined as code, e.g. Render.yaml
, Terraform, or Kubernetes YAML specs.