Contributor License Agreements

We appreciate community contributions to Microsoft repositories. By signing a contributor license agreement, we ensure that the community is free to use your contributions.

Review the CLA document

Download the Microsoft Contributor License Agreement as a PDF document if you need.

Signing the CLA

The Microsoft CLA experience is integrated natively into GitHub and its pull request experience. Here's how it works the first time you contribute to a Microsoft open source project:

  • When you open a pull request, the license/cla check is run by our bot.
  • If you've signed the CLA before, the status check goes green, and you're done. Your pull request is ready to be reviewed and merged.
  • If you have not signed the CLA at any point before, the pull request will receive a comment annotated with the agreement and more information about signing the agreement. You will reply with a comment to accept the agreement on behalf of yourself, or, if you've been authorized to sign on behalf of your company, there is a different syntax for that.
  • After signing, the status check will pass and you're all set. Thanks for your contribution!
  • NOTE:
    If you're an active Microsoft employee or vendor, there is a Microsoft-internal system that allows you to "link" your GitHub account for corporate use. When you use your linked account, you will not have to sign the CLA. Microsoft employees and vendors can learn more about linking accounts at aka.ms/opensource.

.NET Foundation CLA

The .NET Foundation is a 501(c)(6) non-profit organization, which was established to support an innovative, commercially friendly, open-source ecosystem around the .NET platform.

While Microsoft assists with infrastructure alignment, the foundation maintains a separate CLA. You can read more about this process at https://cla.dotnetfoundation.org/. Even Microsoft employees must sign the .NET Foundation CLA to cover their contributions to the community.

Corporate CLA (CCLA)

Microsoft does not typically participate in corporate CLA agreements, given the scale and logistics challenge.