--- title: "My First GitHub Pull Request: Contributing to Open Source" description: "The story of my first GitHub pull request — spotting a fix in an open source project, learning the process, and getting my contribution accepted." date: 2020-12-22T16:38:11+00:00 modified: 2026-06-05T19:03:17+00:00 author: James Kilby categories: - Devops - Personal - Ansible - Artificial Intelligence - Containers - Homelab - NVIDIA - Traefik - VMware - Automation - Github - Cloudflare - Wordpress - Hosting - AWS tags: - #Git - #github - #packer url: https://jameskilby.co.uk/2020/12/my-first-pull/ image: https://jameskilby.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/175jvBleoQfAZJc3sgTSPQA.jpg --- ![175Jvbleoqfazjc3Sgtspqa](https://jameskilby.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/175jvBleoQfAZJc3sgTSPQA.jpg) [Devops](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/devops/) | [Personal](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/personal/) # My First GitHub Pull Request: Contributing to Open Source By[James](https://jameskilby.co.uk)December 22, 2020 · Updated June 5, 2026 • 📖1 min read(207 words) 📅**Published:** December 22, 2020•**Updated:** June 05, 2026 This post is about my first GitHub pull request and contributing to open source. I was initially going to add in the contents of this post to one that I have been writing about my exploits with [HashiCorp Packer](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2021/01/hashicorp-packer/) but I decided it probably warranted being separated out. While working with the following awesome project I noticed a couple of minor errors and improvements that I wanted to suggest. I have worked in IT for over 10 years now but the opportunity to make suggestions to someone else’s codebase hadn’t popped up so I was keen to rectify that. Although I had used Git/GitHub before it was typically for my own uses as a code storage location. I, therefore, needed to sanity check the process of a “pull request” so off to YouTube I went. ## Submitting My First GitHub Pull Request The above video seemed to clarify the process the best and with that knowledge, the request was submitted to the owners and luckily it was accepted. You can see that I am now listed as a contributor [here](https://github.com/rainpole/packer-vsphere/graphs/contributors). Although my contribution was tiny, now that I understand the process much better I am planning to contribute some more to what is a fantastic little project. ## 📚 Related Posts * [How I upgraded my blog as a Static Website with GitHub Actions and Cloudflare](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2025/10/how-i-deploy-my-blog-as-a-static-website-with-github-actions-and-cloudflare/) * [Automating vSphere Golden Images with Packer and GitHub Actions](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/04/packer-vsphere-golden-images/) * [Blog Performance & SEO Improvements: Cloudflare, Privacy & More](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/01/web-development-improvements/) ## Similar Posts * [![Automating the Deployment of my Homelab AI Infrastructure](https://jameskilby.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/VMware-NVIDIA-logos_ee2f18dc-615d-4c9e-8f11-9c3c2ce2bf37-prv-768x432.png)](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/02/automating-the-deployment-of-my-ai-homelab-and-other-improvements/) [Ansible](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/ansible/) | [Artificial Intelligence](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/artificial-intelligence/) | [Containers](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/containers/) | [Devops](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/devops/) | [Homelab](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/homelab/) | [NVIDIA](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/nvidia/) | [Traefik](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/traefik/) | [VMware](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/vmware/) ### [Automating the Deployment of my Homelab AI Infrastructure](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/02/automating-the-deployment-of-my-ai-homelab-and-other-improvements/) By[James](https://jameskilby.co.uk)February 9, 2026 · Updated June 5, 2026 Learn how to use Ansible to configure an Ubuntu VM for use with NVIDIA based AI workloads in vSphere * [![And now for something completely different](https://jameskilby.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/fWbXybA7-768x193.png)](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2018/10/and-now-for-something-completely-different/) [Personal](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/personal/) ### [And now for something completely different](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2018/10/and-now-for-something-completely-different/) By[James](https://jameskilby.co.uk)October 16, 2018 · Updated June 1, 2026 I have worked for my current employer Zen Internet for 3. Over that time I have changed roles from what was originally a customer-focused role into a role with one of the core platform teams. * [![Automating vSphere Golden Images with Packer and GitHub Actions](https://jameskilby.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/packer-github-actions-vsphere-pipeline-768x452.png)](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/04/packer-vsphere-golden-images/) [Automation](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/automation/) | [Github](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/github/) ### [Automating vSphere Golden Images with Packer and GitHub Actions](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/04/packer-vsphere-golden-images/) By[James](https://jameskilby.co.uk)April 30, 2026 · Updated June 5, 2026 A walk-through of an automated golden-image pipeline for vSphere: HashiCorp Packer builds six Ubuntu LTS templates (22.04, 24.04, 26.04 — server and desktop) driven by three GitHub Actions workflows covering PR validation, parallel template builds, and ISO management via a self-hosted runner. * [![How I upgraded my blog as a Static Website with GitHub Actions and Cloudflare](https://jameskilby.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Github-Actions.webp)](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2025/10/how-i-deploy-my-blog-as-a-static-website-with-github-actions-and-cloudflare/) [Cloudflare](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/cloudflare/) | [Devops](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/devops/) | [Github](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/github/) | [Wordpress](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/wordpress/) ### [How I upgraded my blog as a Static Website with GitHub Actions and Cloudflare](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2025/10/how-i-deploy-my-blog-as-a-static-website-with-github-actions-and-cloudflare/) By[James](https://jameskilby.co.uk)October 6, 2025 · Updated June 5, 2026 I wanted to automate the publishing of my blog from the authoring side to the public side. These are some of the improvements I made. * [![Blog Performance & SEO Improvements: Cloudflare, Privacy & More](https://jameskilby.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Website-Optimisations-768x560.png)](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/01/web-development-improvements/) [Cloudflare](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/cloudflare/) | [Hosting](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/hosting/) | [Wordpress](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/wordpress/) ### [Blog Performance & SEO Improvements: Cloudflare, Privacy & More](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2026/01/web-development-improvements/) By[James](https://jameskilby.co.uk)January 15, 2026 · Updated June 1, 2026 I have spent the Christmas break making some improvements to this blog. * [![AWS Solution Architect – Associate](https://jameskilby.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/AmazonWebservices_Logo.svg_-768x307.png)](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2019/12/aws-solution-architect-associate/) [AWS](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/aws/) | [Personal](https://jameskilby.co.uk/category/personal/) ### [AWS Solution Architect – Associate](https://jameskilby.co.uk/2019/12/aws-solution-architect-associate/) By[James](https://jameskilby.co.uk)December 16, 2019 · Updated May 31, 2026 I renewed my AWS Solution Architect certification.