ContribCheck

01

The problem

A good-first-issue label does not tell you whether the work depends on an unfinished issue, names a missing base branch, already has a contributor, or overlaps a pull request. Discovering those blockers after setting up a development environment wastes time.

02

How it works

1. Inspect issue state, dependencies, explicit base-branch requirements, and current assignments.
2. Look for work claims in comments, competing pull requests, contribution guidance, and repository health.
3. Check the latest completed default-branch workflows and report maintainer-response evidence.
4. Return ready, caution, or blocked with linked evidence and next actions. A signal that cannot be verified stays unknown instead of silently passing.

03

Using the tool

ContribCheck is published as a Python CLI, with an SDK and optional FastAPI service. It can produce terminal, JSON, and Markdown reports, or return a non-zero exit code when a configured readiness threshold is reached. Public metadata can be inspected without authentication, subject to GitHub rate limits.

04

What the verdict means

Readiness is an assessment of observable prerequisites, not a prediction that a maintainer will merge a contribution. Comments and repository state can change after inspection. Contributors still need to coordinate scope with maintainers and review the evidence themselves.