Write highly detailed commit messages. Email the owner to discuss what you're adding and why, especially if it's a big thing. Keep your commits small--nothing

Write highly detailed commit messages. Email the owner to discuss what you're adding and why, especially if it's a big thing. Keep your commits small--nothing worse than a mega-commit which fixes 3 different bugs and updates the formatting for 10 files. Make sure to follow the project's formatting and naming conventions.