This guidance applies to changes to the skeleton project itself. Because the skeleton’s history is merged into each of its downstream consumers, contributions here carry extra constraints.
There are no checks or tests. Consider validating any changes with some downstream project first and then porting (or cherry-picking) the commit to skeleton.
Always squash merge pull requests. Every commit on the skeleton’s main branch is inherited by every downstream project, so collapsing each change to a single commit keeps that shared history as small and legible as possible.
Always use repo-absolute references in commit messages and news fragments — for example jaraco/skeleton#123, never a bare #123. Because these commits are merged into downstream projects, a bare reference would resolve against the wrong repository and notify unrelated issues. See Commit Integrations Mismatch for rationale.