MuckRock is open source software, meaning anyone can freely inspect, modify, and run the software themselves. It also means that you can help develop the site by contributing new features, bug fixes, and suggestions. This project explains how, while also providing a starting point for new contributors.

Contribute

If you’d like to help us continue making improvements like these in the future, there are lots of ways to help out.

If you find a bug you can email us directly or open an issue on GitHub.

If you do the latter, please search open issues first to make sure it hasn’t already been reported. If it has been reported previously, please leave an additional comment letting us know it’s an issue for you, particularly if you can provide more details about when it crops up or what you think is causing the problem.

For those who want to contribute design, code, or otherwise more directly to the site, we have a developer channel on the MuckRock Slack. Once you’re on the Slack, just drop a message in #Intros asking to be added to the #developers channel.

Code for Boston

MuckRock is a part of Code for Boston’s weekly hack nights, which take place Tuesday evenings in Kendall Square. We might not make it to every one of them, so if you want to meet up there it’s a good idea to check in on Slack or email first.

In particular, we’re looking for designers who are interested in helping us find ways to make all of our tools and data more accessible and more fun to use. We’ve got a relatively simple front-end stack, so if you’re interested in helping hundreds of thousands of people better understand public records and the importance of transparency, please get in touch!