There are many ways you can contribute to Tails. No effort is too small and whatever you bring to this community will be appreciated. So read on to find out how you can make a difference in Tails.

Share your experience

Every user can help others or provide developers with useful information.

• Report bugs
• Test experimental ISO images
• Provide input to developers
• Help other Tails users

Donate

Donating speeds up the development of Tails.

• Make a donation

Contribute your language skills

Writer

Good writers can make Tails accessible to more people.

• Improve documentation
• Write press releases

Translator

Translators can allow more people around the world to use Tails.

• Improve Tails in your own language

Speaker

Speakers can advocate Tails to all kinds of public.

• Talk at events

Contribute your computer skills

Developer or maintainer

Software people with very diverse skills can improve Tails.

• Work on the source code
• Improve Tails by working on Debian

System administrator

System administrators can contribute to the infrastructure behind Tails.

• Run a HTTP mirror
• Improve Tails infrastructure

Designer

Designers can make Tails easier to use and more appealing.

• Improve the website
• Design graphics
• Improve the Tails user experience

Reference documents

• Design documents
• Blueprints to help structuring ideas for future improvements
• Merge policy
• Logo

Tools for contributors

• Source code: Git repositories
• Roadmap
• Redmine bug tracker
  • Starter tasks for new contributors
  • Tasks can be filtered by type of work (see links in the sidebar)
• Building a Tails image
  • Build a local copy of the website
  • Customize Tails
  • Nightly ISO builds
• Debian packages
  • APT repository, to store our custom Debian packages
  • How we manage and upgrade the Linux kernel.
• Glossary for contributors

Mentors & guidance for new contributors

Once you have found a first Starter task to work on, you might need some guidance.

Here is a list of mentors who can help with specific tasks. Feel free to talk to them if you plan to work on anything related to their field of expertise, for example by assigning them tickets on Redmine or talking to us using the usual communication channels.

• AppArmor: intrigeri, jvoisin, u
• Build system (Vagrant, Rake): anonym
• Debian related work: intrigeri, u
• Documentation: BitingBird, sajolida
• Onion Circuits: alan
• OpenPGP Applet: nodens
• Persistence setup: intrigeri, kurono
• Sysadmin: contact
• Tails Greeter: alan, intrigeri
• Tails Installer: alan, kurono, u
• Tails Upgrader: intrigeri
• Tails Verification: sajolida, anonym
• Test suite: anonym
• Thunderbird (Icedove): anonym
• Tor configuration, time syncing, MAC spoofing: anonym
• Tor Browser: anonym
• Usability: sajolida, tchou
• Unsafe Web Browser: anonym
• Website: sajolida
• WhisperBack: alan

Release cycle

• Release schedule
• Release process
  • Manual test suite
  • Automated test suite

Relationship with upstream and derivatives

• Relationship with upstream
• Improve Tails by working on Debian
• About creating Tails derivatives

Collective process

• Calendar of releases, meetings, working sessions, etc.
• Code of conduct
• Social contract
• Contributors meetings, and minutes from past meetings
• Sponsorship to attend events
• Marking a task as Starter
• Document progress
• Roles
  • Accounting team
  • Debian maintainer
  • Foundations team
  • Help desk
  • Sponsor deliverables:
    • Team manager
    • Worker
  • Release manager
  • Ticket gardener
  • Sysadmins
  • Technical writer
  • Test suite maintainers
  • UX designer
  • Verification extension maintainers
• Reports sent to sponsors

Talk with us

To talk to other Tails contributors, subscribe to the relevant mailing lists.