## Contributing to this Project

OpenSearch is a community project that is built and maintained by people just like **you**. 
[This document](https://github.com/opensearch-project/.github/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md) explains how you can contribute to this and related projects.

## Developer Certificate of Origin

OpenSearch is an open source product released under the Apache 2.0 license (see either [the Apache site](https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0) or the [LICENSE.txt file](LICENSE.txt)). The Apache 2.0 license allows you to freely use, modify, distribute, and sell your own products that include Apache 2.0 licensed software.

We respect intellectual property rights of others and we want to make sure all incoming contributions are correctly attributed and licensed. A Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO) is a lightweight mechanism to do that.

The DCO is a declaration attached to every contribution made by every developer. In the commit message of the contribution, the developer simply adds a `Signed-off-by` statement and thereby agrees to the DCO, which you can find below or at [DeveloperCertificate.org](http://developercertificate.org/).

```
Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1

By making a contribution to this project, I certify that:

(a) The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I
    have the right to submit it under the open source license
    indicated in the file; or

(b) The contribution is based upon previous work that, to the
    best of my knowledge, is covered under an appropriate open
    source license and I have the right under that license to
    submit that work with modifications, whether created in whole
    or in part by me, under the same open source license (unless
    I am permitted to submit under a different license), as
    Indicated in the file; or

(c) The contribution was provided directly to me by some other
    person who certified (a), (b) or (c) and I have not modified
    it.

(d) I understand and agree that this project and the contribution
    are public and that a record of the contribution (including
    all personal information I submit with it, including my
    sign-off) is maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed
    consistent with this project or the open source license(s)
    involved.
 ```

We require that every contribution to OpenSearch is signed with a Developer Certificate of Origin. Additionally, please use your real name. We do not accept anonymous contributors nor those utilizing pseudonyms.

Each commit must include a DCO which looks like this

```
Signed-off-by: Jane Smith <jane.smith@email.com>
```

You may type this line on your own when writing your commit messages. However, if your user.name and user.email are set in your git configs, you can use `-s` or `– – signoff` to add the `Signed-off-by` line to the end of the commit message.