René's URL Explorer Experiment

{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","headline":"Document \"comment and wait to be assigned\" expectation in contributor guides","articleBody":"## Background\n\nIn #2136, a contributor put in redundant work on issue #663 only to discover an NVIDIA team member already had work in flight on it. Documenting the expectation to claim issues before starting work would potentially help avoid this in the future.\n\nSee the discussion: https://github.com/NVIDIA/cuda-python/pull/2136#issuecomment-4636464717\n\n## What we said we'd do\n\nThis is a two-sided commitment:\n\n1. **Contributor side:** Update our contributor documentation to explicitly ask contributors to comment on an issue and wait to be assigned before starting work, so maintainers can flag issues that are already spoken for (whether by another external contributor or an NVIDIA team member).\n\n2. **NVIDIA team side:** When an NVIDIA team member is expected to work on an issue, or has started working on one, they should be assigned to the issue. This is what makes the \"wait to be assigned\" signal meaningful to external contributors — without an assignee, there is no way for an outside contributor to know an issue is already claimed.\n\n## Scope\n\nAdd this guidance to:\n\n- [ ] `CONTRIBUTING.md` (top-level)\n- [ ] `cuda_core/docs/source/contribute.rst`\n- [ ] `cuda_bindings/docs/source/contribute.rst`\n- [ ] `cuda_pathfinder/docs/source/contribute.rst`\n\n## Suggested wording\n\nFor external contributors:\n\n> Before starting work on an existing issue, please comment on the issue to express your interest and wait to be assigned by a maintainer. This helps avoid redundant effort in case the issue is already being worked on by another contributor or an NVIDIA team member.\n\nFor NVIDIA team members (internal practice to document):\n\n> If you intend to work on an issue, or have started working on one, assign yourself to the issue. This signals to external contributors that the issue is already claimed and helps avoid redundant work.\n\n## Acceptance criteria\n\n- All four contributor guides include the \"comment and wait to be assigned\" expectation for external contributors.\n- The expectation that NVIDIA team members self-assign issues they are working on is documented (either in the same guides or in a team-internal doc, TBD).\n- Wording is consistent across documents.","author":{"url":"https://github.com/rparolin","@type":"Person","name":"rparolin"},"datePublished":"2026-06-06T00:00:35Z","url":"https://github.com/NVIDIA/cuda-python/issues/2172"}