margotbean/canimod.github.io

A collaborative GitHub pages website about modding Stardew Valley.

Can I Mod is an open-source website dedicated to documenting Stardew Valley modding — everything from simple user guides (from installing SMAPI to troubleshooting mods) to modding resources (from creating a minimal SMAPI mod to in-depth guides like parsing event data). The site is freely licensed, continuously deployed to canimod.com, and anyone can contribute.

Ways to contribute

Propose edits from your browser

You can propose changes to individual files right here on GitHub — no knowledge of Git needed. Here's how:

1. Open the file you want to change on GitHub. The front page is index.md, and the guide pages are in /guides.

2. Click the edit button in the top-right corner:

   

3. Make your changes. You can edit the text and format it with Markdown, and click the "preview changes" tab to see what the new version will look like.

4. When you're satisfied with your edits, it's time to propose your changes. At the bottom of the page, enter a short title and description and click 'Propose file change':

   

5. You're done! You can watch the proposal page for updates, but one of the repository maintainers will take a look at your changes soon. Your changes will go live automatically within minutes of being accepted. Thanks!

Create a pull request

For bigger changes, you can fork the repository and submit a pull request. One of the repository maintainers will take a look at your changes soon. Your changes will go live automatically within minutes of being accepted. Thanks!

Become a repository maintainer

While anyone can submit pull requests, nothing happens until someone approves them. This is an open-source project, and there's always a risk when too few people hold all the keys.

That's where maintainers come in. They can commit changes directly without a pull request, and approve pull requests from other users. Their changes are deployed to the site immediately. These are selected from active contributors — if you haven't contributed to the project yet, start with that! :)

Since maintainers can commit changes to the public site without approval, they must enable two-factor authentication to reduce security vulnerabilities.

Running the site locally

When working on bigger changes, previewing the site with your changes can be helpful. We use Jekyll to compile the markdown content and site files into a regular HTML site. Here's how to run the site on your local machine:

1. Install Jekyll (see instructions for Linux/Mac or for Windows).

2. In a terminal, navigate to the repository directory and launch the server.

   cd <path to repository>
   jekyll serve
   

3. This will compile the site and serve it from localhost:4000. On Linux or Mac, the server will detect any changes to the content and update the site. On Windows, you'll need to run the command again to see changes.