opensafely / opensafely/documentation

Warn in installation/Getting Started guides about common problems and how to resolve them

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improve content
Dominant language
Python
Stars
48
Forks
10
Avg merge
2d 19h
Merged PRs (30d)
17

Description

Things don't always work according to plan, e.g. GitHub Actions can fail, Gitpod might be down, people may miss steps out.

Some kind of common errors and problem resolution might be helpful for these two reasons:

  • it makes readers realise that things can be tricky (comment from user feedback)
  • it might help readers actually fix the problem, if the "happy path" fails for some reason

Another example: linter warnings in local VSCode installation, because packages aren't installed directly into the host system.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by locating the installation and Getting Started guides, then review the documented GitHub Actions, Gitpod, and local VSCode paths. Add guidance for the common failures and missed steps described in the issue, including local linter warnings, and confirm that each problem has a corresponding resolution.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
github-actions, vscode
Domain
developer-experience, documentation
Issue type
Documentation
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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