Think of them more as rules, rather than guidelines
Use github’s interface to make a fork of the repo, then add that repo as an upstream remote:
git remote add upstream <REPO_LINK_HERE>
- Commit often
- Don't push to your fork until you want to make a pull request
- Present tense verb as first word (e.g. Add function, Fix bug)
- Capitalize first verb (NOT 'add function, fix bug')
- If you want to explain the commit in more depth, follow the first line with a blank line and then a more detailed description of the commit
- git pull --rebase upstream master
- git push (to your fork)
- From the Github website, make a pull request from your fork to the upstream repo