Contributing to Coolify
We are happy that you are interested in contributing to Coolify.
Coolify is used by 470K+ people and maintained by two core maintainers. Contributions are welcome, but alignment matters more than volume: keep changes focused, discuss larger work before coding, test what you submit, and target the next branch.
Project scale
470K+
people use Coolify worldwide.
Review capacity
2 core maintainers
actively maintain the project.
Current focus
v4 stability
major changes are not planned for v4.
These guidelines are stricter than many open-source projects on purpose. Clear structure and boundaries reduce maintainer burnout and keep Coolify sustainable long term.
Support others
Answer questions in Discord or GitHub Discussions when you can verify the answer.
- Be patient and respectful
- Share verified information
- Remember support is voluntary
Report bugs
Create an issue only when the bug is reproducible and not already reported.
- Include reproduction steps
- Add expected and actual results
- Attach logs or screenshots
Submit code
Small fixes are welcome. Larger changes need alignment before implementation.
- One pull request per logical change
- Reference an issue or discussion
- Target the next branch
Improve docs and services
Help improve documentation or add one-click service templates.
- Keep wording clear
- Use existing docs patterns
- Follow service contribution rules
Coolify v4 is focused on stability and sustainable maintenance. Small, focused contributions are easier to review; larger or directional changes need maintainer alignment before implementation.
Likely to be accepted
- Small bug fixes with a clear reproduction path
- Documentation fixes that improve clarity or accuracy
- One-click service additions that follow the template rules
- Narrow code-quality improvements with tests or manual verification
Discuss first or avoid
- Major features or architectural changes without prior discussion
- Large UI or UX rewrites without prior discussion
- Broad refactors mixed into unrelated fixes
- Low-effort AI-generated pull requests
- Pull requests that target a branch other than next
For anything beyond a small, obvious fix, align with the maintainers before spending time on implementation.
Check existing issues and discussions
Discuss larger changes before coding
Keep one pull request to one logical change
Test the change in a clean environment
Open the pull request against the next branch
- Reference and close an issue or discussion when possible.
- Do not reformat unrelated files or fix unrelated style issues.
- Keep the contributor agreement in the pull request description.
- Include detailed testing steps so maintainers can reproduce the result.
Commit messages and pull request titles should start with an action and category. Keep descriptions concise; walls of text listing every small change may be rejected.
| Prefix | Use |
|---|---|
| fix(ui): | UI-related fixes |
| fix(api): | API-related fixes |
| feat(api): | API-related additions |
| feat(service): | One-click service changes |
AI tools are allowed, but you must disclose AI usage in the pull request description. You are still responsible for understanding every change, verifying correctness, and following existing project patterns.
Coolify Core
Set up local development and prepare code contributions for the main Coolify repository.
- Local development setup
- Code contribution flow
- Pull request expectations
Service Templates
Add one-click service templates with the expected structure, metadata, and verification.
- Template requirements
- Service metadata
- Testing checklist
Documentation
Improve these docs while keeping the existing writing style and component patterns.
- Docs structure
- MDX patterns
- Review expectations