Adding support resources to your project

You can create a SUPPORT file to let people know about ways to get help with your project.

To direct people to specific support resources, you can add a SUPPORT file to your repository's root, docs, or .github folder. When someone creates an issue in your repository, they will see a link to your project's SUPPORT file.

Screenshot of the new issue form. In the right sidebar, in the "Helpful resources" section, a link labeled "Support" is outlined in dark orange.

You can create default support resources for your organization or personal account. For more information, see Creating a default community health file.

Tip

To help people find your support guidelines, you can link to your SUPPORT file from other places in your repository, such as your README file.

Adding support resources to your project

  1. On GitHub, navigate to the main page of the repository.

  2. Above the list of files, select the Add file dropdown menu, then click Create new file.

    Alternatively, you can click in the file tree view on the left.

    Screenshot of the main page of a repository highlighting both the "Add file" and the "plus sign" icon, described above, with an orange outline.

  3. In the file name field, type SUPPORT.md (with all caps).

  4. On the Edit new file tab, add information about how people can get support for your project.

  5. To review your SUPPORT file, click Preview.

  6. Click Commit changes...

  7. In the "Commit message" field, type a short, meaningful commit message that describes the change you made to the file. You can attribute the commit to more than one author in the commit message. For more information, see Creating a commit with multiple authors.

  8. If you have more than one email address associated with your account on GitHub, click the email address drop-down menu and select the email address to use as the Git author email address. Only verified email addresses appear in this drop-down menu. If you enabled email address privacy, then a no-reply will be the default commit author email address. For more information about the exact form the no-reply email address can take, see Setting your commit email address.

    Screenshot of a GitHub pull request showing a dropdown menu with options to choose the commit author email address. octocat@github.com is selected.

  9. Below the commit message fields, decide whether to add your commit to the current branch or to a new branch. If your current branch is the default branch, you should choose to create a new branch for your commit and then create a pull request. For more information, see Creating a pull request.

    Screenshot of a GitHub pull request showing a radio button to commit directly to the main branch or to create a new branch. New branch is selected.

  10. Click Commit changes or Propose changes.