Project Guidelines
A written set of JavaScript project maintenance guidelines covering Git, docs, testing, style and APIs.
- Stars
- 29.4k
- Forks
- 3.1k
- Licence
- MIT
- Language
- JavaScript
- Last update
- 1.9 years ago
- Type
- Learning resource
No commits in over a year — check for forks or alternatives before adopting.
What it is
This is a collection of best-practice guidelines for maintaining JavaScript projects, written and gathered by the elsewhen team. It covers topics such as Git branching and commit messages, documentation, environments, dependencies, testing, code style, logging, API design and accessibility. It is a reading resource rather than software you install.
- Use the Git rules and commit message section as a template for a team contributing guide
- Adapt the feature-branch and rebase workflow for a new repository
- Review the sections on testing, code style and logging to audit an existing project
Great for
- Teams that want a shared written standard for Git branching and pull requests
- Developers new to collaborative JavaScript projects who want a starting checklist
- Maintainers looking for a reference to discuss and adapt for their own team
Not ideal for
- People looking for a tool or library to install, since this is only a document
- Teams that already have established conventions and need specific tooling setup, because the README focuses on principles rather than configuration
How to get it
- 1
Read it online
Clone the repository to read it locally
git clone https://github.com/elsewhencode/project-guidelines - 2
Run it
- Open the README on GitHub or in your local clone
- Read the section 1 Git rules and workflow
- Pick the guidelines your team wants to adopt and adjust them
- Propose changes through a pull request to the repository if you want to contribute
- 3
Get the most out of it
- Read the translated READMEs linked at the top if you prefer another language
- Follow the linked external articles for deeper background on rebasing and commit messages
- Combine these rules with a tool such as a linter or formatter to enforce the code style section automatically
Downloads
Strengths
- Concise, practical rules with a short explanation ('Why') for each one
- Links to external references for deeper reading on Git workflows and commit conventions
- Organized into clear sections that can be read independently
Trade-offs
- The README is truncated in the provided text, so later sections (testing, API, accessibility) could not be verified in detail
- Opinionated choices, such as a develop branch plus feature branches, may be more than small projects need, as the README itself notes
- The last push was in December 2024 and there is no release, so currency of the advice is not clearly maintained
How it compares
| Project | Stars | Type | Level | Updated | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| project-guidelines (this) | 29.4k | Learning resource | beginner | 1.9 years ago | Teams that want a shared written standard for Git branching and pull requests |
| clean-code-javascript | 94.7k | Learning resource | beginner | 2.3 years ago | Developers who want to improve the readability of their JavaScript code |
| pure-bash-bible | 41.7k | Learning resource | intermediate | 2.9 years ago | Bash scripters who want fewer external dependencies in their scripts |
| domain-driven-hexagon | 15k | Learning resource | intermediate | 2.4 years ago | Developers who want to understand Domain-Driven Design and hexagonal architecture through examples |
| naming-cheatsheet | 14.2k | Learning resource | beginner | 2.6 years ago | Developers who want more consistent, readable names in their code |
| the-book-of-secret-knowledge | 255k | Curated list | beginner | 2.0 years ago | System and network administrators looking for a reference of tools and howtos |
Stats synced from GitHub. The assessment above was drafted with AI from the project's README on 2026-10-29 and may miss recent changes — check the README before relying on a command. MIT licence: free to use, modify and distribute, including commercially, as long as you keep the copyright notice.