Phase 0: Bootstrap

There are specific tools, services, and applications we use to get work done in Fedora. Setting yourself up in these tools is an important step in setting yourself up for successful contributions. Before you can do meaningful work, you need to get through these initial steps to bootstrap yourself for successful participation.

Fedora Account System (FAS)

Register an account here: https://accounts.fedoraproject.org

Every Fedora contributor needs an account in the Fedora Account System, often shortened to "FAS". A FAS account is the pre-requisite for accessing most services and tools that we use in Fedora. Generally, a FAS account is the only account you will need to participate in Fedora; several other services, tools, and apps we use will use a FAS account instead of requiring you to make a new account.

Sign the Fedora Project Contributor Agreement (FPCA)

To sign the FPCA, go to your Settings page from FAS, choose Agreements, and sign the agreement.

After you create a FAS account, you need to "sign" the Fedora Project Contributor Agreement, or FPCA. When you sign this agreement, you are agreeing that the contributions you make to Fedora are under Fedora’s default Open Source licenses, if they are not already licensed. This agreement does not take away anything from you, and you still own your contributions that you make to Fedora.

For Fedora to accept contributions you make to the project, you must first sign the FPCA. Your journey in Fedora always starts first with the FPCA.

See this summary from the FPCA page:

The only purpose of the Fedora Project Contributor Agreement (FPCA) is to ensure that Fedora has default permission to use your contributions under a Fedora-allowed license (either MIT for software or CC BY-SA for content). You may contribute under any other allowed Fedora license; the FPCA simply sets a default if no license is specified.

Nothing in the FPCA takes anything away from you. You retain ownership of your contributions.

Configure your FAS account

Complete your FAS account profile from your Settings page in FAS.

Next, after you sign the FPCA, set up your FAS account by filling out your profile. There are various fields to describe yourself in your FAS profile that help others in the community know you better:

  • Name

  • Profile picture or avatar

  • Pronouns

  • Preferred language

  • Time zone

  • Website or blog

  • IRC or Matrix usernames

  • Git forge usernames (e.g. GitHub, GitLab)

Some services, tools, and apps in Fedora use this information to make collaboration easier. For example, when you set your time zone, some tools will show your local time, so someone in a different time zone will know if they are trying to reach you when you might be offline or asleep. Furthermore, some tools will use your IRC or Matrix username to let you use chat bots or automated tools to give kudos to other Fedora contributors (more about that later). Your FAS profile picture or avatar is used as a profile picture in other services, like the Fedora Wiki, Pagure, Bodhi, and more.

Completing your FAS profile makes it easier for others to collaborate and work together with you. Please complete this important step when setting up your account for the first time.

Collaboration tools

Like many Open Source communities, Fedora has key platforms to connect, collaborate, and work together with other Fedora contributors. We have two primary platforms: an asynchronous and a synchronous platform. Asynchronous means the communication does not happen in real-time and replies might be spaced out over time. This could look like an online forum, a mailing list, or a Q&A website. Synchronous means the communication is happening in real-time, like a conversation. This could look like an online chat room, a video conference meeting, or an in-person conversation.

Fedora is a big community and there are multiple asynchronous and synchronous platforms to collaborate with others. However, there are two primary platforms we recommend for all new contributors to reach out to others: Fedora Discussion and Fedora Chat.

Fedora Discussion (asynchronous)

Sign into Fedora Discussion using your FAS account: https://discussion.fedoraproject.org

Fedora uses an online web forum called Discourse for our asynchronous communications. Fedora Discussion is the name of our Discourse forum. Anyone with a FAS account can sign into Fedora Discussion and post a new topic or reply to existing topics. Several teams use Fedora Discussion as part of their everyday workflow.

Once you sign in with your FAS account, there are two next steps:

  1. Complete your Fedora Discussion profile (e.g. add a bio, set your time zone, location, pronouns, etc.).

  2. Introduce yourself to the community so folks can get to know you better.

Fedora Chat (synchronous)

Sign into Fedora Chat using your FAS account: https://chat.fedoraproject.org

Fedora uses a decentralized chat protocol called Matrix for our synchronous communications. Fedora Chat is the name of our hosted Matrix platform. Anyone with a FAS account can sign into Fedora Chat and join different chat rooms and team discussions in the Fedora community.

Alternatively, if you already use Matrix on a different homeserver, you can use your own Matrix account and join the Fedora Space. If you use Fedora Chat, you will automatically be a member of the Fedora Space without any extra steps.

Once you get your Matrix account set up, you can introduce yourself in the introductions chat room:

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