Contribution Guide

Livepeer is an open-source project and community contributions are essential to its growth. You do not need to write code to make a valuable impact – documentation improvements, governance participation, community support, and bug reports are all valued contributions.

Contributors Spotlight

Get highlighted for your contributions to Livepeer!

Ways to Contribute

Code

Fix bugs, build features, and improve tooling. Open a discussion before starting large features. Each repo has a CONTRIBUTING.md.

Documentation

Found something outdated, missing, or confusing? Docs contributions are always welcome. See the workflow below.

Governance

Participate by voting on proposals, commenting on LIPs on the forum, or drafting improvement proposals.

Community Support

Help answer questions in Discord or the Forum. Helping others onboard is one of the highest-value contributions you can make.

Bug Reports

Found a bug? Open an issue on the relevant GitHub repository with full reproduction steps.

Ideas and Feedback

Share ideas on the Forum. Even if your idea does not ship immediately, it feeds into community thinking about what the network needs.

Contributing to the Code

Before You Start

Check existing issues and discussions – search GitHub before opening a new issue or starting work on a feature. A quick “is anyone working on this?” can save everyone time.
Open a discussion for large changesets – for major new features, open a GitHub Discussion or Issue first. This avoids investing effort in a PR that may not be accepted.
Read the repo’s CONTRIBUTING.md – each repository has its own contribution guide covering setup, testing, and PR conventions.

Key Repositories

go-livepeer

The Go implementation of the Livepeer protocol. Contributing guide covers commit structure, changelog requirements, and PR conventions. Contributions classified by mode: General, Broadcaster, Orchestrator, Transcoder.

Livepeer Studio

The Studio monorepo (TypeScript). Covers code of conduct, yarn usage (not npm), and issue/PR templates. Code reviews happen weekly.

livepeer.js / React SDK

The JavaScript/React SDK. Guide covers setting up a production Studio API key for tests, running the test suite, and PR etiquette. Discuss major API changes before building.

AI Runner

The containerised AI inference runtime. Contributions include new pipeline types, model support, and infrastructure improvements. See the README for development setup.

Livepeer Protocol (Smart Contracts)

Solidity smart contracts. All contributions and bug fixes welcome as pull requests. Security vulnerabilities must go through Immunefi, not GitHub Issues.

Livepeer Docs

The documentation repository (this site). See the Documentation Contribution section below for the specific workflow.

General Pull Request Principles

These apply across all Livepeer repositories:

Keep PRs focused – one logical change per pull request. Smaller, well-scoped PRs are easier to review and merge.
Write readable commit messages – use Conventional Commits format where repos require it: fix:, feat:, docs:, and related types.
Add tests – when adding features or fixing bugs, include test cases covering the new or updated behaviour.
Update the changelog – go-livepeer and other repos require updates to CHANGELOG_PENDING.md with each PR.
Respond to review feedback promptly – do not force-push to a branch under active review.
Rebase and merge – for larger changesets, maintainers may request a local rebase to clean up the commit history before merging.

Contributing to the Docs

The Livepeer documentation is open source and lives at github.com/livepeer/docs on the docs-v2 branch.

Quick Path: Feedback Without Code

You do not need to use Git to contribute to the docs:

Thumbs up/down – on any documentation page to signal whether it was helpful
GitHub Issues – open an issue describing what is wrong, missing, or confusing. Eight issue templates are available.
Discord – share feedback in the #lounge channel or tag a documentation team member

Pull Request Workflow

Fork the repository

Navigate to github.com/livepeer/docs and click Fork. This creates your own copy.

Clone and configure remotes

git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/docs.git
cd docs
git remote add upstream https://github.com/livepeer/docs.git

Create a branch from docs-v2

git checkout docs-v2
git pull upstream docs-v2
git checkout -b docs-plan/your-short-description

Always branch from docs-v2. Never commit directly to docs-v2 or main.

Make your changes

Edit or create .mdx files in the relevant section. Follow the Style Guide for formatting and component usage.Key rules:

Use UK English
No inline styles – use Mintlify global components or component primitives from /snippets/components/
No hardcoded colours – use CSS custom properties
Absolute imports only: /snippets/components/... (not relative paths)

Run pre-commit checks

The repository has pre-commit hooks that check structure, style, links, spelling, and MDX validity. Run them before pushing:

./tools/lpd hooks run

Or run the full test suite:

node tests/run-pr-checks.js --base-ref docs-v2

Open a pull request

Push your branch and open a PR against docs-v2 on the upstream repository. Use the provided PR template and fill it out completely. PRs are reviewed within 48–72 hours on business days.

Review Assignments

Documentation changes are reviewed by section owners defined in .github/CODEOWNERS. Generally:

Developers section – developer relations team
Gateways section – gateway team
Orchestrators section – orchestrator team
Resources / cross-cutting – documentation team

Contributing to Governance

Token holders can participate in Livepeer governance without writing any code.

Read active proposals

Visit the Livepeer Forum governance category and Explorer voting page to see what is currently open for input.

Comment on proposals

Add your perspective on active threads in the forum before proposals move to an on-chain vote. Well-reasoned feedback is valued from all participants.

Vote on-chain

If you hold staked LPT, you can cast votes on active proposals directly from the Explorer.

Draft a Livepeer Improvement Proposal (LIP)

If you have a protocol improvement idea, draft it on the Forum under the Governance category and solicit community feedback before moving to a formal LIP.

Grants and Bounties

If you want to contribute more substantially and receive compensation:

Livepeer Grants

Two grant tracks: Open Network Grants (tools, educational content, node operations improvements) and Video Disruptor Grants (cutting-edge video research and novel applications). Grants are paid in LPT.

Software Bounties

Scoped software tasks with defined acceptance criteria and compensation. A good entry point for contributors who prefer clearly-defined work.

Grant applications are reviewed bi-weekly by the Livepeer Grants committee. To discuss a potential grant application before submitting, ping the grants team in the #governance Discord channel.

Community Contribution Principles

These apply across all Livepeer repositories and contribution types:

Read before you build – check existing issues and discussions before starting major work
Keep PRs focused – one logical change per pull request
Write readable commit messages – use Conventional Commits format
Be constructive in reviews. If a contribution does not fit, explain why and offer suggestions for improvement
Link to relevant documentation – when closing issues or declining PRs, link to existing resources where possible

Not sure where to start? Search for issues labelled good first issue or help wanted across the Livepeer GitHub organisation. These are specifically tagged as appropriate entry points for new contributors.

Start Here

Concepts

Get Started

Custom AI Workflows

Guides

Resources

Contributors Spotlight

Ways to Contribute

Code

Documentation

Governance

Community Support

Bug Reports

Ideas and Feedback

Contributing to the Code

Before You Start

Key Repositories

go-livepeer

Livepeer Studio

livepeer.js / React SDK

AI Runner

Livepeer Protocol (Smart Contracts)

Livepeer Docs

General Pull Request Principles

Contributing to the Docs

Quick Path: Feedback Without Code

Pull Request Workflow

Review Assignments

Contributing to Governance

Grants and Bounties

Livepeer Grants

Software Bounties

Community Contribution Principles

Start Here

Concepts

Get Started

Custom AI Workflows

Guides

Resources

​Contributors Spotlight

​Ways to Contribute

Code

Documentation

Governance

Community Support

Bug Reports

Ideas and Feedback

​Contributing to the Code

​Before You Start

​Key Repositories

go-livepeer

Livepeer Studio

livepeer.js / React SDK

AI Runner

Livepeer Protocol (Smart Contracts)

Livepeer Docs

​General Pull Request Principles

​Contributing to the Docs

​Quick Path: Feedback Without Code

​Pull Request Workflow

​Review Assignments

​Contributing to Governance

​Grants and Bounties

Livepeer Grants

Software Bounties

​Community Contribution Principles

Contributors Spotlight

Ways to Contribute

Contributing to the Code

Before You Start

Key Repositories

General Pull Request Principles

Contributing to the Docs

Quick Path: Feedback Without Code

Pull Request Workflow

Review Assignments

Contributing to Governance

Grants and Bounties

Community Contribution Principles