We’re happy to announce a new and improved process that will make it easier for the Azure community to contribute to documentation and SDKs in GitHub. The Contribution License Agreement (CLA) for community contributions is now available in a fully online and automated workflow. Here’s some background on the new process, and an invitation to start contributing.

Background

Azure has many community contribution opportunities. Our SDKs, such as the Azure SDK for .NET, PowerShell CmdLets, Mobile Services, and more, are available on GitHub, and we’ve been taking community contributions on them for a while.

Each documentation article on azure.microsoft.com is also available on GitHub, and you’re invited to submit improvements. Simply look for the “Contribute to this article” area at the bottom of each article on azure.microsoft.com.

Before today, Azure community members external to Microsoft who wanted to contribute code or content had to download a PDF, sign it, scan it, and fax/email it back. This manual process created a lot of friction and contributor dissatisfaction.

Introducing the Azure Pull Request Bot

To encourage more community contributions, we’ve created the Azure Pull Request Bot that automatically evaluates whether a contributor needs to sign a CLA, includes an online form, accepts digital signatures, and sends helpful notifications to contributors.

The new process is triggered as soon as a pull request (PR) is submitted to a GitHub repo. The Azure PR Bot posts a message on the PR discussion thread asking the contributor to sign a CLA electronically:

Contributors simply sign in with their GitHub credentials to https://cla.azure.com, fill out the form, and sign the agreement electronically via DocuSign. No more scanning, faxing, or ink!

You’re invited to contribute!

You’re invited to start contributing and enjoy the new contribution process to Azure.

Here are some of the public repos that you can start contributing today:

• Azure Documentation Articles
• Azure SDK’s: Azure SDK for .NET,  Azure SDK for Node, PowerShell CmdLets, Mobile Services
• Document DB Client for .NET, Node, JavaScript, Python

See you on GitHub, and thanks for contributing to Azure!

TTYL, AZPRBOT;