Get Involved

What is Open Source Software?

Thunderbird is open source software, meaning that anyone can inspect, modify, enhance it, and share it. But the fun is not just for programmers! Thunderbird is created by a community of designers, translators, documentation writers and support people in addition to developers. We invite anyone to come and participate in the creation of Thunderbird. Regardless of your skillset, we’re sure there is something you can add to our community and project.

Getting Started

If you would like to learn how to contribute code to Thunderbird, check out our developer documentation. You will learn how to get the code, set any necessary configuration, build the calendar, rebuild after checking out new code, etc. It is a good read. Don’t just skim it.

Code

Code is located on Mozilla's Mercurial server.

• comm-central is the main Thunderbird repository.
• Thunderbird also relies on the code from mozilla-central. See the build instructions for how to obtain all the code needed to build.
• You can search the code on DXR.

There is also some code hosted on GitHub.

• Thundernest contains the code for Thunderbird.net (this site), as well as the Thunderbird web server setup scripts.
• Thunderbird on GitHub contains several Thunderbird related repositories.

Bugs

All Thunderbird bugs live on Mozilla's Bugzilla. Bugzilla is a powerful tool and can be intimidating if you are not used to it. So check out these pre-defined searches to test the waters:

• You can help out by triaging incoming bugs. Known bugs should be marked as duplicates, unconfirmed bugs often needs someone to see if they too can reproduce.
• "Good first bugs" which are extra easy to try and fix when you are just starting out.
• Mentored Bugs have a mentor who commits to helping you every step of the way.
• Thunderbird bug queries is a wiki page with lots of useful searches.

Add-Ons

Learn how to create add-ons and themes by checking out our developer documentation.

Please share ideas and concepts by posting them on Bugzilla. You can also discuss design in the #maildev irc channel, or the Discourse category.

Style Guide

• Looking for the Thunderbird logo, icons, color palette, or other design resources? Check out our style guide.

Where documentation lives

• The Thunderbird section of the Mozilla wiki.
• The official Thunderbird developer website.

Contributing to documentation

• MozillaWiki:Policies/Accounts - What you need to know to contribute to the wiki. That page is applicable to the Thunderbird section.
• You can contribute to the Thunderbird developer documentation via its repository on GitHub.
• Support users asking for help on the Thunderbird Support Forum

Discussion Forums

• Thunderbird Support Forum
• Mozilla's Discourse
  • Thunderbird
  • Thunderbird Beta
  • Thunderbird Add-Ons
• Thunderbird Builds on MozillaZine - For help with building Thunderbird and using daily builds.
• mozilla.support.thunderbird is a Google Group for support.

Live Chat

IRC Channels on irc.mozilla.org

You can use Mibbit.com if you don't already have a preferred IRC client.

• #maildev - For hacking on Thunderbird.
• #extdev - For building Thunderbird add-ons/extensions.
• #thunderbird - For general questions and support.
• #tb-qa - For QA chat.

Mailing Lists

• tb-planning (Google Group Mirror) - For high level topics.
• Maildev - A moderated mailing list for Thunderbird Engineering plans.
• tb-support-crew - For those who help the users.
• thunderbird-testers - For anyone who is helping test.
• dev-apps-thunderbird (Newsgroup ) (Google Group Mirror) - For technical and code related discussions, such as add-ons.
• tb-enterprise - For ADMINISTRATORS to discuss large scale deployment and configuration of Thunderbird.
• Add-on Developers List - For general discussions about creating add-ons, and is for add-on developers who need support in creating their add-ons.

Also check the Communication Channels wiki page.