Popular PnP repositories and how to get started contributing7 min read

Introduction

In August of 2019, I wrote a post called My GitHub cheat sheet for PnP contributions — an interactive cheat sheet which explains the GitHub commands that I use when I start a contribution. The post is interactive: you just tell it your GitHub username and what repository you want to contribute to, and it customizes the instructions for you.

NOTE: I have since updated the interactive cheat sheet to a Summary Cheat Sheet with all the same interactive steps, but without all the lengthy explanation.

I also wrote another post talking about how impressed I am with David Warner II’s offer to help anyone with their first contribution. I have since joined the Sharing is Caring initiative and proudly co-host all the session with

After briefly chatting with David I realized that the biggest hurdle for people is that they just don’t know where to get started. In my post, I recommend that you read the contribution guidelines for every repo, but I found that they are often hard to find in each repository.

I also say that most repositories want you to start from the dev branch, but as the Chris Kent pointed out in the August 22nd PnP community call, some repositories prefer you use the master (or, more and more commonly, the main) branch.

So, with David’s help, we compiled a list of the most common PnP repositories to help you get started. We only show the repositories that provide contribution guidelines.

The list contains the following:

• Repo: Name of the repository
• What is it?: Description of the repository
• Getting started: Links to the most likely resource if you want to get started contributing to that repository
• Branch: The branch you should target when submitting your pull requests

NOTE: The information in each of the repositories can change and that you should always refer to the repository for the latest information.

Popular repositories

Repo	What is it?	Getting started	Branch
CLI for Microsoft 365	Manage Microsoft 365 and SharePoint Framework projects on any platform https://aka.ms/o365cli NOTE: This repository prefers "one commit per pull request"	– – –
Microsoft 365 Community Docs	Microsoft 365 community contributed documentation https://docs.microsoft.com/microsoft-365/community
Microsoft Graph .NET Client Library	Microsoft Graph Client Library for .NET! https://graph.microsoft.com/
Microsoft Graph .NET Core Client Library	The core Microsoft Graph client library for .Net. (Microsoft.Graph.Core) https://graph.microsoft.com/
Microsoft Graph documentation	Documentation for the Microsoft Graph REST API, which feeds the Microsoft Graph Developer Portal. https://docs.microsoft.com/graph
Microsoft Graph JavaScript Client Library	The Microsoft Graph JavaScript client library is a lightweight wrapper around the Microsoft Graph API that can be used server-side and in the browser. https://graph.microsoft.com/
Microsoft Graph Library for PHP	Microsoft Graph Library for PHP https://docs.microsoft.com/graph/toolkit/overview		Documentation changes, use Otherwise, use
Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK	The Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK is a collection of PowerShell modules that contain commands for calling Microsoft Graph service.
Microsoft Graph SDK for Java	Get started with the Microsoft Graph SDK for Java by integrating the Microsoft Graph API into your Java application! https://developer.microsoft.com/graph
Microsoft Teams Development Community Samples	Contains community samples that demonstrate different usage patterns for developing on Microsoft Teams as a platform. Samples are generally not production-ready, but are intended to show developers specific patterns and use cases for use in complete applications. http://aka.ms/teams-dev-samples
Microsoft365DSC	Manages, configures, extracts and monitors Microsoft 365 tenant configurations https://aka.ms/M365DSC
Modernization Tools and Solutions	All modernization tooling and guidance http://aka.ms/sppnp-modernize
PnP Framework	PnP Framework is a .Net Standard library targeting Microsoft 365 containing the PnP Provisioning engine and a ton of other useful extensions
PnP Modern Search	Home of PnP Modern Search solutions, helping you move from classic to modern SharePoint and beyond
PnP PowerShell	SharePoint PnP PowerShell CmdLets https://aka.ms/sppnp-powershell
PnP Sites Core Library	Office 365 Dev PnP Core component (.NET) targeted for increasing developer productivity with CSOM based solutions. NOTE: Will only be maintained until end of 2020
PnPJs	SharePoint Patterns and Practices Reusable Client-side Libraries https://pnp.github.io/pnpjs
SharePoint Developer Documentation	SharePoint Developer Documentation https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/dev/
SharePoint Framework Client-Side Web Part Samples & Tutorial Materials	Code samples and developer content targeted towards SharePoint Framework client-side web parts. Maintained by the nicest guy 😁. http://aka.ms/spfx-webparts
SharePoint Framework Extensions Samples & Tutorial Materials	Code samples and developer content targeted towards SharePoint Framework client-side extensions — maintained by yours truly. https://aka.ms/spfx-extensions
SharePoint Framework Library Component Samples & Tutorial Materials	Samples that demonstrate different usage patterns for the SharePoint Framework library component.		Create from: Submit to:
SharePoint Framework React Controls	Reusable React controls for SPFx solutions https://pnp.github.io/sp-dev-fx-controls-react/	– –
SharePoint Framework React Property Controls	Reusable SPFx property pane controls – Open source initiative https://pnp.github.io/sp-dev-fx-controls-react/	– –
SharePoint List Formatting Samples	SharePoint List Formatting Samples https://pnp.github.io/sp-dev-list-formatting/

Conclusion

Let’s keep this list up to date! If you find that we forgot a repository, or that something is wrong, let us know in the comments of via Twitter and we’ll get it updated!

Thanks to with putting together this list, and for always making yourself available to help people in this community.

This list wouldn’t be possible without the hard work of all of those who contributed (and continue to contribute) to the above repositories. Thank you for your contributions!

Photo credit

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

Updates

• October 18, 2020: There was so much interest around the Microsoft Graph Toolkit repo that I also added the Microsoft Graph repos. Thanks for giving me a list of repos.
• October 15, 2020: Microsoft Graph Toolkit accepts contributions now! Woo hoo!
• October 13, 2020: Thanks to Nanddeep Nachan for pointing out I had forgotten to list the PnP/Teams-dev-samples!
• October 12, 2020: The Office 365 CLI is now called the CLI for Microsoft 365. Added Microsoft365DSC as per Dean Gross‘s suggestion.
• July 27, 2020: Updated repos within PnP organization.
• April 03, 2020: Yes, both the SPFx extensions and web parts samples repositories now ask you to submit to the master branch. This article was updated accordingly.
• March 03, 2020: This repository is getting a lot of traffic these days, so I figured I’d update it and add the super-useful repo
• November 22, 2019: I’m incredibly proud to be part of the Sharing is Caring initiative, where we walk people through the process of contributing to open-source repositories and show people how to create their first pull request! If you haven’t done so yet, sign up.
• September 25, 2019: has launched a new initiative to help anyone who wants to create their first PnP contribution. It is called and you can register to attend a live online hands-on session where he walks you through step-by-step instructions to create your first pull request.
• August 25, 2019: Thanks to for providing us with details for the SharePoint/sp-dev-modernization repository.
• August 23, 2019: Tweeted to remind us about SharePoint/PnP-Sites-Core. It is so foundational to other components, I don’t know how we missed it. Urgh! I hate to disappoint someone I hold in such high regard! Sorry!
• August 23, 2019: rightly pointed out that we forgot the PnPjs repository.