Overview

nf-core is a community-driven project built on the contributions. Whether you’re fixing a bug, developing a new pipeline, writing documentation, or reviewing pull requests, every contribution helps advance reproducible analysis for the entire community.

This section covers the different ways you can contribute to nf-core.

Quick start

New to contributing? Start here:

• How to contribute: An introduction to contributing to nf-core, including contribution etiquette and where to begin

Pipelines

nf-core pipelines are end-to-end bioinformatics workflows built using the nf-core template and community standards.

• Contributing a new pipeline: Propose, develop, and release a new nf-core pipeline, from initial proposal through to your first release
• Contributing to existing pipelines: Add features, fix bugs, or improve documentation in existing nf-core pipelines

Components

nf-core modules and subworkflows are reusable components shared across pipelines. Contributing components benefits the entire Nextflow community by reducing duplicated effort and enabling standardized, reproducible analyses:

• Contributing components: Contribute modules and subworkflows to the nf-core/modules repository

Tools

nf-core/tool is a Python package with helper tools for developing and maintaining nf-core pipelines, modules, and subworkflows:

• nf-core/tools documentation: Documentation of the nf-core/tools command-line tooling
• Contributing tools: Contribute to the nf-core/tool package

Configs

nf-core/configs contains a set of centralised Nextflow configuration files that can be used with all nf-core pipelines for specific clusters or compute environments at different institutions:

• Contributing configs: Add a new institutional configuration file with custom parameters to run nf-core pipelines

Documentation

Good documentation is essential to nf-core’s mission. Documentation contributions are just as valuable as code contributions:

• Contributing documentation: Fix typos, clarify instructions, or write new guides for nf-core documentation

Reviewing pull requests

Reviewing contributions is an important part of nf-core’s collaborative development process:

• Reviewing components: Checklist for reviewing module and subworkflow pull requests
• Reviewing pipeline releases: Checklist for reviewing pipeline release pull requests
• Reviewing nf-core/tools: Checklist for reviewing nf-core/tools pull requests
• nf-core-bot: Use the nf-core bot to control automated GitHub actions on pull requests

Project proposals

Large projects that affect a significant proportion of the community go through the nf-core RFC (Request for Comment) process:

• Project proposals: Propose and develop major changes through the nf-core RFC process, from initial suggestion through to implementation

Other considerations

These pages cover additional topics that may be relevant depending on your contribution:

• Deprecating modules: Mark outdated modules or subworkflows as deprecated when a better alternative is available
• Contributor types: Understand how nf-core attributes and recognizes different types of contributors in pipeline manifests
• Contributor’s list: Add your institution to the nf-core website to be featured

Ask the community

If you’re unsure where to start or have questions about contributing, reach out on nf-core Slack. The #help channel is a great place to ask general questions, and pipeline-specific channels are available for more targeted discussions.