Installation Guide(s)
A clear installation guide helps users and contributors get started with a project efficiently, reducing time spent troubleshooting setup issues. Poorly written guides can create confusion or barriers to adoption, while well-structured instructions improve accessibility and reliability. For any open source project, providing a complete and organized installation guide is an important part of introducing new users and contributors to your tool.
You may have several guides for different computer architectures, package managers, etc. or just one. If your project has many dependencies it is highly recommended to also provide an image (Docker, Apptainer, etc.) to allow users to avoid spending time dealing with any versioning issues. If your project already has a reliable image, it is still good to include separate installation instructions or a recipe for the image as contributors may need to change the project’s dependencies.
Highlights of this section:
- How to write instructions for different types of installation procedures
- How to ensure that installation instructions can be reliably followed
- Important information to include for your users and contributors to avoid dealing with dependency issues
A Markdown template for an Installation Guide is available in the companion template repository.