Our review
This skill guides the preparation of a GitHub project for open source release by ensuring all essential documentation and legal foundations are in place.
Strengths
- Structured 8-phase approach covering security, legal, documentation, and sustainability.
- Includes git history cleaning to prevent secret leaks.
- Provides detailed references and ready-to-use templates.
Limitations
- Requires manual user input for some decisions (license, governance).
- May be overkill for small or simple repositories.
- Does not replace professional legal advice for licensing.
Use this skill when you want to release a project on GitHub in a professional and sustainable manner.
Do not use it for private projects or when you are not ready to apply best practices (e.g., cleaning the history).
Security analysis
SafeThe skill is a guide for open-sourcing projects, using safe tools like file readers, git history analyzers, and documentation validators. It does not contain any destructive or exfiltrating instructions.
No concerns found
Examples
I want to open source my GitHub project. Help me prepare it properly with all necessary files and checks.Can you scan my git history for any accidentally committed secrets or credentials before I publish my project?Help me add a code of conduct, contributing guide, and governance model to my project repo.name: open-source-best-practices description: Validates and prepares a GitHub project for open source release by ensuring all essential documentation and legal foundations are in place. Uses Git History Cleaner to identify and remove secrets, credentials, and sensitive data before publication. Use when you want to release a project publicly or harden an existing public repo. license: See LICENSE file in repository root metadata: author: AndreaGriffiths11 version: "1.0" allowed-tools: file_reader, file_writer, github_api, license_selector, documentation_validator, git_history_analyzer
Open Source Best Practices
This skill guides you through preparing your GitHub project for sustainable open source release.
How to Use This Skill
- See the full workflow in AGENTS.md - the complete phases and checklist
- Reference detailed guides in references/ folder:
- File requirements and structure
- License selection decision tree
- Security scanning and git history cleaning
- Governance framework
- Maintainer expectations
- GitHub Sponsors setup
- Template examples
Quick Overview
The workflow has 8 phases (do them in order; Phase 1 isn't optional):
- Security First - Clean your git history using Git History Cleaner
- Legal & Ownership - Choose license, verify ownership, clarify admin rights
- Community Foundations - Add Code of Conduct, governance, decision-making
- Documentation & Onboarding - README, CONTRIBUTING, issue/PR templates
- Setup Files & Infrastructure - .gitignore, CI/CD, protected branches
- Maintainer Expectations - Define roles, SLAs, communication
- Security & Vulnerability Reporting - SECURITY.md, vulnerability process
- Funding & Sustainability - GitHub Sponsors (optional but recommended)
Get Started
When a user asks about open sourcing their project, begin by asking:
- "What does your project do?" - Understand scope
- "Who's the audience?" - Know your users
- "Is your git history clean?" - Check for secrets first
Then guide them through the phases using the full AGENTS.md workflow.
Key Resources
- AGENTS.md - Complete 8-phase workflow
- references/file-checklist.md - What files and why
- references/license-selection.md - How to choose
- references/security-practices.md - Clean git history
- references/governance.md - Make decisions sustainably
- references/maintainer-expectations.md - Healthy projects
- references/sponsors-setup.md - Enable funding
- references/template-examples.md - Copy-paste templates
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