How to craft discoverable repos

For your repositories to flourish, it’s important that people know they exist! Here are some tips for crafting discoverable repositories.

Repository purpose

• Make sure you solve a real problem. Repositories that have useful, helpful information will always rise to the top.
• Make sure your idea behind the solution and your vision are clearly written down. It helps if people know not only what the repository is for, but where it came from and where it’s going.

Sharing

• Tell users to star your repo if they find it interesting.
• If you have a blog or mailing list, use it. Once your repository is ready, send an announcement your subscribers.
• Share it on relevant internal networks. Invite people to check out your website and GitHub repository.
• Reach out to others who keep interest in your work area and see if they can proactively communicate about your repo.
• Find some enthusiastic early adopters.

Repository content

• Add a short, but clear description of what the repository is for.
• Add other common README sections: contributing, build instructions, short usage example, etc.
• Add a screenshot of the program. Without a screenshot, visitors are more likely to leave the page.
• Create a demo page if possible, to help users get up and running as quickly as possible.
• Add a logo to the top of your README.

README templates

• Example by @PurpleBooth

Documentation

• Classifying your repository with topics on GitHub.com and GitHub Enterprise Server
• Searching for repositories on GitHub.com and GitHub Enterprise Server