If a pull request contains documentation changes that might require feedback from the documentation team, ping [@NixOS/documentation-team](https://github.com/orgs/nixos/teams/documentation-team) on the pull request.
If you consider having enough knowledge and experience in a topic and would like to be a long-term reviewer for related submissions, please contact the current reviewers for that topic. They will give you information about the reviewing process. The main reviewers for a topic can be hard to find as there is no list, but checking past pull requests to see who reviewed or git-blaming the code to see who committed to that topic can give some hints.
Container system, boot system and library changes are some examples of the pull requests fitting this category.
## How to merge pull requests yourself
To streamline automated updates, leverage the nixpkgs-merge-bot by simply commenting `@NixOS/nixpkgs-merge-bot merge`. The bot will verify if the following conditions are met, refusing to merge otherwise:
- the PR author should be @r-ryantm;
- the commenter that issued the command should be among the package maintainers;
- the package should reside in `pkgs/by-name`.
Further, nixpkgs-merge-bot will ensure all ofBorg checks (except the Darwin-related ones) are successfully completed before merging the pull request. Should the checks still be underway, the bot patiently waits for ofBorg to finish before attempting the merge again.
For other pull requests, please see [I opened a PR, how do I get it merged?](#i-opened-a-pr-how-do-i-get-it-merged).
In case the PR is stuck waiting for the original author to apply a trivial
change (a typo, capitalisation change, etc.) and the author allowed the members
to modify the PR, consider applying it yourself (or commit the existing review
suggestion). You should pay extra attention to make sure the addition doesn't go
against the idea of the original PR and would not be opposed by the author.
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The following paragraphs about how to deal with unactive contributors is just a proposition and should be modified to what the community agrees to be the right policy.
Please note that contributors with commit rights unactive for more than three months will have their commit rights revoked.
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Please see the discussion in [GitHub nixpkgs issue #321665](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/321665) for information on how to proceed to be granted this level of access.
In a case a contributor definitively leaves the Nix community, they should create an issue or post on [Discourse](https://discourse.nixos.org) with references of packages and modules they maintain so the maintainership can be taken over by other contributors.
# Flow of merged pull requests
After a pull request is merged, it eventually makes it to the [official Hydra CI](https://hydra.nixos.org/).
Hydra regularly evaluates and builds Nixpkgs, updating [the official channels](https://channels.nixos.org/) when specific Hydra jobs succeeded.
See [Nix Channel Status](https://status.nixos.org/) for the current channels and their state.
Here's a brief overview of the main Git branches and what channels they're used for:
- `master`: The main branch, used for the unstable channels such as `nixpkgs-unstable`, `nixos-unstable` and `nixos-unstable-small`.
- `release-YY.MM` (e.g. `release-25.11`): The NixOS release branches, used for the stable channels such as `nixos-25.11`, `nixos-25.11-small` and `nixpkgs-25.11-darwin`.
When a channel is updated, a corresponding Git branch is also updated to point to the corresponding commit.
So e.g. the [`nixpkgs-unstable` branch](https://github.com/nixos/nixpkgs/tree/nixpkgs-unstable) corresponds to the Git commit from the [`nixpkgs-unstable` channel](https://channels.nixos.org/nixpkgs-unstable).
Nixpkgs in its entirety is tied to the NixOS release process, which is documented in the [NixOS Release Wiki](https://nixos.github.io/release-wiki/).
See [this section][branch] to know when to use the release branches.