How To Help
===========

.. contents:: Topics

There are many ways to help the Ansible project.

Become a power user
-------------------

A great way to help the Ansible project is to become a power user:

* Use Ansible everywhere you can
* Take tutorials and classes
* Read the `official documentation <http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/index.html>`_
* Study some of the `many excellent books <https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_2_7?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=ansible&sprefix=ansible%2Caps%2C260>`_ about Ansible
* `Get certified <https://www.ansible.com/training-certification>`_.

When you become a power user, your ability and opportunities to help the Ansible project in other ways will multiply quickly.

Ask and answer questions online
-------------------------------

There are many forums online where Ansible users ask and answer questions. Reach out and communicate with your fellow Ansible users. 

You can find the official :ref:`Ansible communication channels <communication>`.

Participate in your local meetup
--------------------------------

There are Ansible meetups `all over the world <https://www.meetup.com/topics/ansible/>`_. Join your local meetup. Attend regularly. Ask good questions. Volunteer to give a presentation about how you use Ansible.

If there isn't a meetup near you, we'll be happy to help you `start one <https://www.ansible.com/ansible-meetup-organizer>`_.

File and verify issues
----------------------

All software has bugs, and Ansible is no exception. When you find a bug, you can help tremendously by :ref:`telling us about it <reporting_bugs_and_features>`.


If you should discover that the bug you're trying to file already exists in an issue, you can help by verifying the behavior of the reported bug with a comment in that issue, or by reporting any additional information.

Review and submit pull requests
-------------------------------

As you become more familiar with how Ansible works, you may be able to fix issues or develop new features yourself. If you think you've got a solution to a bug you've found in Ansible, or if you've got a new feature that you've written and would like to share with millions of Ansible users, read all about the `Ansible development process <http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/community/development_process.rst>`_ to learn how to get your code accepted into Ansible.

Another good way to help is to review pull requests that other Ansible users have submitted. The Ansible community keeps a full list of `open pull requests by file <https://ansible.sivel.net/byfile.html>`_, so if there's a particular module or plug-in that particularly interests you, you can easily keep track of all the relevant new pull requests and provide testing or feedback.

Become a module maintainer
--------------------------

Once you've learned about the development process and have contributed code to a particular module, we encourage you to become a maintainer of that module. There are hundreds of different modules in Ansible, and the vast majority of them are written and maintained entirely by members of the Ansible community.

To learn more about the responsibilities of being an Ansible module maintainer, please read our :ref:`module maintainer guidelines <maintainers>`.

Join a working group
--------------------

Working groups are a way for Ansible community members to self-organize around particular topics of interest. We have working groups around various topics. To join or create a working group, please read the `Ansible working group guidelines <https://github.com/ansible/community/blob/master/WORKING-GROUPS.md>`_.


Teach Ansible to others
-----------------------

We're working on a standardized Ansible workshop called `Lightbulb <https://github.com/ansible/lightbulb>`_ that can provide a good hands-on introduction to Ansible usage and concepts.

Social media
------------

If you like Ansible and just want to spread the good word, feel free to share on your social media platform of choice, and let us know by using ``@ansible`` or ``#ansible``. We'll be looking for you.
