Join Team Sunbird
Sunbird is built in the open, by people who need it to work. Adopters, engineers, designers, students, governments, and organisations all shape what it becomes. Demand for digital public goods is growing fast, and COSS sits at the centre of those conversations from India - building the ecosystem, and stewarding Sunbird as it evolves.
Why contribute
Sunbird is deployed across countries and sectors to solve problems at population scale. Contributing means your work reaches further than any single deployment.
You don't need to be a developer, and you don't need to bring something finished.
What you contribute gets used, not shelved
It reaches everyone running Sunbird in production, serving millions of people.
You learn how things work at scale
Real review from the dedicated Sunbird design council, real constraints, real feedback from deployments — from people who have done it before.
You join a collective
Sunbird is stewarded by COSS alongside partners, adopters, and maintainers across the global DPG ecosystem. Contributors become part of that network.
Your experience stays on it
Open source means attribution, public history, a body of work you can point to anyone and being part of the execution of societal transformation projects
Contributors Journey
Three steps, whatever you're bringing. No form required to begin.
Look at the project
See what Sunbird already does, which building blocks exist, and where the open work sits. The documentation, the repositories, and the public backlog are all open — no sign-up needed to read any of it.
Say what you're thinking
Raise it before you build it. Describe the gap you've spotted or the thing you want to offer — in the community channel, or as an issue on the relevant repository. Early feedback saves rework, and someone will point you at the right people.
Make your contribution
Send it in the form that fits what you're bringing: a pull request, a document, a bug report, a design review, an Expression of Interest. Someone will review it and come back to you. Expect questions — that's the process working.
Contributors Journey
Here are the common forms a contribution takes:
Code Related
Fix a bug, build a feature, improve performance, add tests, harden security in any Sunbird building block.
Digital Public Goods
Offer an existing DPG for inclusion in the Sunbird suite.
Program specifications
Contribute the domain knowledge behind a solution — workflows, data standards, policy requirements, reference implementations for a sector.
Documentation
Write guides, fix inaccuracies, add examples, translate content. Often the highest-impact first contribution.
Design & accessibility
Improve interfaces, run usability reviews, test against accessibility standards.
Testing & feedback
Report bugs, reproduce issues, validate releases, share what broke in your deployment.
What we expect from every contribution
These apply whether you're submitting a one-line fix or an entire DPG.
Serve the public-good mission.
Aim for something that benefits adopters broadly, not just one implementation's immediate need.
Uphold platform independence.
Avoid designs that only work with one vendor, cloud, or proprietary stack. Sunbird exists to be deployed anywhere.
Protect privacy and data as policy, not just code.
Never commit, hardcode, or expose personal data. Follow applicable data-protection law.
Do no harm by design.
Check that what you build doesn't introduce bias, exclusion, or barriers to access for any group of users.
Build for people outside your team.
Sunbird's value comes from adoption, not a single deployment. Whatever you contribute — code, a specification, a guide — should be reusable and understandable by someone who has never met you.
Treat documentation as part of the contribution.
Future contributors and adopters should understand your work without asking you directly.
This is the standard you uphold. For the technical how-to — branching, linting, PR process, testing, sign-off — follow the specific building block's own CONTRIBUTING.md or microsite.Choose your pathway
Beyond individual contributions, two paths carry a formal review process.
Contributing code
For ongoing contributions to an existing building block, or proposing a new one.
- Check your work against the Code contribution checklist
- Follow the repository's
CONTRIBUTING.mdfor branching, testing, and sign-off - Open your pull request
- A maintainer will review it — expect questions and requested changes before the code is merged
Proposing a new building block rather than contributing to an existing one? Open a discussion first — the Sunbird Design Council will want to talk before you build.
Contributing a DPG
For offering an existing digital public good, or a program specification, to the Sunbird Collective.
- Check readiness against the DPG readiness checklist
- Submit the Expression of Interest form by clicking on Get in touch
- The Sunbird Product Team verifies your submission
- The Sunbird Design Council conducts an architectural review
- You revise based on feedback, if needed
- Approved DPGs are listed on
sunbird.org
Ready to collaborate?
The Sunbird team will get in touch to schedule reviews with you. For DPGs and program specifications, listing commences after architectural and product discussions conclude.
