internet-and-sons/.github

This repo holds the org-level conventions, the auto-applied PR template, and a starter scaffold for new internet-and-sons repos. Most of its files are special — GitHub treats them differently from a normal repo.

If you landed here looking for the welcome page that shows on github.com/internet-and-sons, that's profile/README.md — read on for what's in here and how to change it.

Who this is for

Anyone with org-write access who needs to:

• Update the rules every internet-and-sons repo follows.
• Adjust the PR template that auto-applies to every repo's pull requests.
• Tweak the starter scaffold copied into a new repo when spinning one up.
• Update the welcome README that shows on the org's GitHub landing page.

What's in here

Path	What it is	How GitHub uses it
profile/README.md	The org landing page. Welcomes visitors, explains what this org is, walks through how to start a new repo.	Auto-rendered at github.com/internet-and-sons. Public-visible. The repo grid GitHub renders below it does the discovery work — no need to hand-curate a list.
CONTRIBUTING.md	The org-wide rules every repo follows: PR-required, branch naming, merge policy, AI-agent rule, hooks.	Auto-used as the default CONTRIBUTING.md for any repo in the org that doesn't have its own.
PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md	The PR description template (Summary / Why / What changed / Docs touched / Test plan).	Auto-applied to every PR opened in any internet-and-sons repo, unless that repo overrides with its own template.
repo-skeleton/	Five starter docs (README, CLAUDE, CONTRIBUTING, TODO, LEARNINGS) plus a drop-in LICENSE-MIT for public repos. All carry {{placeholders}} and inline comments.	Not magic — copy these into a new repo by hand when spinning one up. The "Starting a new repo here" section in profile/README.md walks through it.

GitHub also looks for CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md, SECURITY.md, SUPPORT.md, and ISSUE_TEMPLATE/ here. Not shipping those yet — they get added when there's an actual reason to (a public repo with external contributors complaining, a security-disclosure flow worth formalising). No need for ceremony.

When to update what

You want to…	Edit
Change the welcome page on github.com/internet-and-sons	profile/README.md
Add or change a rule that applies to every repo	CONTRIBUTING.md
Adjust the PR template (sections, wording)	PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md
Update the scaffold for new repos (placeholder phrasing, structure)	repo-skeleton/*.md
Add a new file type GitHub auto-uses across the org (CoC, security, etc.)	Add the file at the repo root

Workflow for changes

This repo follows the same rules as every other internet-and-sons repo: every change goes through a PR. See CONTRIBUTING.md for the full picture.

The exception was the bootstrapping commit (when the repo was empty) — that pushed directly to main because there was no main to protect yet. From here on, branch + PR + merge.

Quick flow:

git checkout main
git pull
git checkout -b <prefix>/<short-name>
# edit files
git add -A && git commit -m "..."
git push -u origin <branch>
gh pr create

Self-merge is fine for routine doc edits once any CI / pre-commit checks pass. Loop in a collaborator on structural changes (renaming a file GitHub specifically looks for, removing a section other repos link to, etc.).

What this repo is NOT

• Not a place for project source code. Each project — open-source or private — lives in its own repo. This one is just the org-level scaffolding.
• Not a documentation hub. This repo is for the small set of files GitHub auto-uses across the org. Long-form docs about a specific project live in that project's repo (docs/, CLAUDE.md, LEARNINGS.md).
• Not a template repo (in GitHub's "Use this template" sense). The repo-skeleton/ folder is a copy-source, not a GitHub repo template. New repos are created normally; the skeleton files are copied in by hand.

Help

If something here doesn't make sense, open an issue or ask. Better than guessing — these files affect every repo in the org, so a wrong assumption ripples wider than usual.