# \[xPost\] Question on Contributing a Cookbook

**URL:** <https://discourse.pangeo.io/t/xpost-question-on-contributing-a-cookbook/3230>\
**Category:** Project Pythia\
**Created:** [March 3, 2023, 4:40pm UTC](https://discourse.pangeo.io/t/xpost-question-on-contributing-a-cookbook/3230 "2023-03-03T16:40:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chris\_Dupuis](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.pangeo.io/chris_dupuis/32/1763_2.png) [@Chris\_Dupuis](https://discourse.pangeo.io/u/Chris_Dupuis)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2023, 4:40pm UTC](https://discourse.pangeo.io/t/xpost-question-on-contributing-a-cookbook/3230/1 "2023-03-03T16:40:21Z")

</div>

Cross-posted from: [Question on Contributing a Cookbook · Issue #39 · ProjectPythia/.github · GitHub](https://github.com/ProjectPythia/.github/issues/39)

I’m trying to submit a new cookbook as per the guide [here](https://github.com/ProjectPythia/.github/blob/main/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md). However, I’m confused about how to merge my repo. Section 3.1 says to create a new branch (which I’ve done), and Section 3.7 says to submit a merge request, but it is not clear to me what I’m merging or where I’m merging it to. Am I merging my branch to my fork’s main? My branch to Pythia’s main? I’m really lost on this.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![brian-rose](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.pangeo.io/brian-rose/32/184_2.png) [@brian-rose](https://discourse.pangeo.io/u/brian-rose)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2023, 6:04pm UTC](https://discourse.pangeo.io/t/xpost-question-on-contributing-a-cookbook/3230/2 "2023-03-03T18:04:08Z")

</div>

Hi Chris,

If you’re following the workflow in that guide, I think the answer is that step 3.7 is merging your new feature branch into _your_ main branch, because at this point in the process there is no _Pythia_ fork of your repo.

Basically step 3 is just encouraging you to use branches within your own repo to do all development work, rather than editing directly on main. I think point here (which needs to be clarified in that guide) is that you should see the preview automation when you open the PR from _your branch_ to _your main_.

Once you transfer the repo to Pythia org in step 4, the workflow to make changes looks slightly different since you’d be open a PR from _your branch of your personal fork_ to _main branch of Pythia repo_.

Does this clarify things?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![brian-rose](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.pangeo.io/brian-rose/32/184_2.png) [@brian-rose](https://discourse.pangeo.io/u/brian-rose)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2023, 6:06pm UTC](https://discourse.pangeo.io/t/xpost-question-on-contributing-a-cookbook/3230/3 "2023-03-03T18:06:45Z")

</div>

I see that @dcamron is also on this issue over at [Update Gallery with xbatcher ML Cookbook · Issue #119 · ProjectPythia/cookbook-gallery · GitHub](https://github.com/ProjectPythia/cookbook-gallery/issues/119)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chris\_Dupuis](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.pangeo.io/chris_dupuis/32/1763_2.png) [@Chris\_Dupuis](https://discourse.pangeo.io/u/Chris_Dupuis)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2023, 6:48pm UTC](https://discourse.pangeo.io/t/xpost-question-on-contributing-a-cookbook/3230/4 "2023-03-03T18:48:24Z")

</div>

Ah, okay, that wasn’t clear to me. I was trying to follow everything verbatim, so it was also a headscratcher to create a new branch after I made some changes on main already. I was thinking there was some Pythia magic I wasn’t aware of lol

One thing I discovered though is that if you try to make a PR before transferring ownership, the link checker will fail because it’s expecting to find a ProjectPythia repo instead of a user repo. I found that it made more sense to transfer owndership before I merged.

Thanks for the help!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![brian-rose](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.pangeo.io/brian-rose/32/184_2.png) [@brian-rose](https://discourse.pangeo.io/u/brian-rose)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2023, 6:58pm UTC](https://discourse.pangeo.io/t/xpost-question-on-contributing-a-cookbook/3230/5 "2023-03-03T18:58:22Z")

</div>

We are definitely still figuring out the whole process, so thanks for pointing out your pain points so we try to clarify the docs!