guides

# Guides

Guides for working together, getting things done, programming well, and
programming in style.

## High level guidelines

- Be consistent.
- Don't rewrite existing code to follow this guide.
- Don't violate a guideline without a good reason.
- A reason is good when you can convince a teammate.

## A note on the language

- "Avoid" means don't do it unless you have good reason.
- "Don't" means there's never a good reason.
- "Prefer" indicates a better option and its alternative to watch out for.
- "Use" is a positive instruction.

## Guides by category

- [thoughtbot Tech Stack](/tech-stack/)
- [General](/general/)

### Collaboration

- [Code Review](/code-review/)
- [Open Source](/open-source/)
- [Product Review](/product-review/)

### Protocols

- [Accessibility](/accessibility/)
- [Data](/data/)
- [Email](/email/)
- [Object-Oriented Design](/object-oriented-design/)
- [Security](/security/)
- [Web](/web/)
- [Web Performance](/web-performance/)
- [Production](/production)

### Languages

- [Bash](/bash/)
- [CSS](/css/)
- [ERB](/erb/)
- [HTML](/html/)
- [JavaScript & TypeScript](/javascript-typescript/)
- [Python](/python/)
- [Ruby](/ruby/)
- [Sass](/sass/)
- [Shell](/shell/)
- [Swift](/swift/)

### Frameworks and platforms

- [Android](/android/)
- [iOS](/ios/)
- [Rails](/rails/)
- [React](/react/)
- [React Native](/react-native/)
- [Testing with Jest](/testing-jest/)
- [Testing with RSpec](/testing-rspec/)

### Tools

- [Git](/git/)
- [GraphQL](/graphql/)
- [Postgres](/postgres/)
- [Relational Databases](/relational-databases/)

## Contributing

Please read the [contribution guidelines](/CONTRIBUTING.md) before submitting a
pull request.

In particular: **if you have commit access, please don't merge changes without
waiting a week for everybody to leave feedback**.

## Credits

Thank you,
[contributors](https://github.com/thoughtbot/guides/graphs/contributors)!

## License

Guides is © 2020-2025 thoughtbot, inc. It is distributed under the [Creative
Commons Attribution License](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).

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## About thoughtbot

![thoughtbot](https://thoughtbot.com/thoughtbot-logo-for-readmes.svg)

This repo is maintained and funded by thoughtbot, inc.
The names and logos for thoughtbot are trademarks of thoughtbot, inc.

We love open source software!
See [our other projects][community].
We are [available for hire][hire].

[community]: https://thoughtbot.com/community?utm_source=github
[hire]: https://thoughtbot.com/hire-us?utm_source=github

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