---
title: "Who counts as a contributor in DX?"
canonical_url: "https://docs.getdx.com/knowledgebase/who-counts-as-a-contributor-in-dx/"
md_url: "https://docs.getdx.com/knowledgebase/who-counts-as-a-contributor-in-dx.md"
last_updated: "2026-05-08"
---

# Who counts as a contributor in DX?
The term "contributor" appears throughout DX, but what it means depends on the report you’re looking at. This article is a reference for how each report defines its population.

At a glance, reports fall into two groups:

- **Team membership** (everyone assigned to a team): Breakdowns, AI adoption, Snapshots
- **"Writes code" cohort** (narrower — only people who write code): PR throughput, AI impact

## How contributor status is determined

Most of the differences above come down to two concepts: **team membership** and the **"writes code" filter**.

### Team membership

A **contributor** in its simplest form is any user assigned to a team in your org hierarchy. This is what DX uses for team headcounts, snapshot participation rates, and survey distribution. It has nothing to do with code activity — anyone in your hierarchy is a contributor, regardless of role.

### The "writes code" filter

During a snapshot, DX asks each person _"Do you regularly write code as part of your job?"_ A few reports use this answer to narrow their population to people who write code.

- If someone has **never answered** this question, DX treats them as writing code by default.
- Only users who have **explicitly answered "no"** are excluded from reports that use this filter.

## Report-by-report details

### Breakdowns

The Breakdowns report has a "By" dropdown that controls what each row represents. The contributor definition changes depending on what you select.

**By Contributor:** Each row is an individual person. The report shows a row for every user matching your current filters (team, tags, search, etc.) — even if they have zero activity in the selected period. This is a roster of your people, not a list of who was active. The "writes code" filter is not applied.

**By Team:** Each row is a team. The "Contributors" column shows a headcount of users assigned to that team. Per-contributor rates (e.g., PRs merged per contributor) divide by this headcount. The "writes code" filter is not applied here either — the denominator includes everyone on the team regardless of role.

### PR throughput

PR throughput uses the narrowest population of any report. To be included in the per-person denominator, a user must:

1. Be in the "writes code" cohort (answered "yes" or never answered the question)
2. Have authored at least one pull request at any point in time

The contributor breakdown on this report only shows users who had merged PRs in the selected time range.

### AI adoption

The AI adoption report uses all users assigned to a team as the denominator, scoping the calculation to your org hierarchy even if some active users fall outside of it. The "writes code" filter is not applied.

### AI impact

The AI impact report uses the "writes code" cohort in several places:

- **Trends tab:** The adoption percentage line plotted across each metric tile shows what share of contributors have reached a given adoption level (light, moderate, or heavy) over time. The denominator is users in the "writes code" cohort.
- **Dollar impact tab:** The developer count and efficiency gain calculations are scoped to users in the "writes code" cohort. Self-reported time-savings data from snapshots is also filtered to this population.

This is a narrower population than the AI adoption report, because it excludes anyone who has explicitly said they don’t write code.

### Snapshots

In snapshot reports, "contributors" refers to users who were expected to complete (or did complete) the survey. Contributor counts and participation rates reflect this population.

## Common questions

### "Is a contributor the same thing as a developer?"

Not always. "Contributor" usually means anyone assigned to a team — regardless of whether they write code. "Developer" (or the "writes code" cohort) is a subset used only by PR throughput and AI impact. The two overlap for people who write code, but a PM or QA lead on your team is a contributor without being in the "writes code" cohort.

### "Does DX determine contributor status based on code activity?"

No. Contributor status is determined by **team membership in your org hierarchy**. The "writes code" distinction comes from the **snapshot survey**, not from commits, PRs, or CI/CD activity.

The one exception is PR throughput, which also requires at least one historical pull request to include someone in its per-person denominator. That requirement layers on top of the survey answer — it doesn’t independently define who counts as a contributor.
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