id,node_id,number,title,user,state,locked,assignee,milestone,comments,created_at,updated_at,closed_at,author_association,active_lock_reason,draft,pull_request,body,reactions,performed_via_github_app,state_reason,repo,type
1532853152,I_kwDOAMm_X85bXXug,7439,Add clarifying language to contributor's guide,26591824,closed,0,,,3,2023-01-13T20:11:57Z,2023-03-13T17:51:26Z,2023-03-13T17:51:26Z,CONTRIBUTOR,,,,"### What is your issue?

I am going through the [contributor's guide](https://docs.xarray.dev/en/stable/contributing.html#creating-a-development-environment) for `xarray`, and I have a few suggested updates to make the instructions clearer to relatively new contributors like me!

## General questions
- If making updates to docstrings, I am unclear if I should use the virtual env `xarray-tests` or `xarray-docs`. I assumed I should use `xarray-docs` since I am only updating docstrings which are fed into the documentation. But this isn't entirely clear, since the file I updated is not in the `\docs` folder, but is at `\xarray\backends\api.rst`.
- If only updating docs or docstrings, should I still run pytest locally before pushing? Or do those tests only apply to code updates? Either way, this should be made clear in the contributing guide.

## Suggestion updates
- Under [Code Formatting](https://docs.xarray.dev/en/stable/contributing.html#code-formatting):
  - Contributors are recommended to use `pre-commit` via `pre-commit install`, but when I tried this I found that `pre-commit` was not installed in the virtual env `xarray-docs`. It does appear to be installed in virtual env `xarray-tests` ([yml file](https://github.com/pydata/xarray/blob/b589f6b82968857dbfc9a4dfdb4c09dbcb5aeb44/ci/requirements/environment.yml)). Should I run pre-commit when updating docs? If so, we should add pre-commit to virtual env `xarray-docs` ([yml file](https://github.com/pydata/xarray/blob/b589f6b82968857dbfc9a4dfdb4c09dbcb5aeb44/ci/requirements/doc.yml)).
- Under [Building the Documentation](https://docs.xarray.dev/en/stable/contributing.html#building-the-documentation):
  - Add a sentence to make it clear that users can preview the html files from their updated documentation in their local browsers to verify it looks as expected. (This is a minor suggestion, but we might as well be as explicit as possible, especially since docs might more likely be updated by newer contributors.)
  - Suggested wording update: ""Then you can find the HTML output in the folder xarray/doc/_build/html/. **You can preview the html files in your local browser to verify that you see expected behavior based on your changes.**""","{""url"": ""https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/7439/reactions"", ""total_count"": 2, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 2, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,completed,13221727,issue