This is a guide for contributing to all of my projects.
Note: there's some overlap between this and the code of conduct.
- Before embarking on a large scale change, especially any change that significantly changes architecture or requires user code changes (SemVer major/breaking changes), I'd encourage you to discuss it with me, either in an issue or via email or chat, so that you don't waste time and effort on something that ends up being pointless.
- If I don't accept your change, feel free to fork and develop your own project. There is so much room for everyone to do whatever they want! If your idea isn't a fit for my project, maybe that just means it should be your project instead :)
- There is no room for ego in code. If there are two patches that do similar things, and I land the other and not yours, that's not a slight against you. If anything, yours probably helped me see that the thing needed to be done, so it was not a waste.
- I speak plainly and generally find excessive social padding gets in the way of discussions about code, especially for non-native English speakers. Do not take code review personally. If I'm harsh in my criticism, it's because I respect you as a developer.
- Any demands, pleading, or otherwise implying that I or any other open source maintainer owes you something, by virtue of having given away our time and labor, will be shut down immediately. Your dependence is not my emergency. If you need something done quickly, be prepared to pay market rates for it.
- Except in very rare cases, every patch must have a test, and the test must fail without the patch. (This does not apply to patches that are not a functional change, such as most documentation fixes, etc.)
- Test coverage must remain at 100%, if it is there already. If it is not, then it must not decrease.
- I do not accept pull requests that change
package.jsonorpackage-lock.json. If you think that a dependency needs to be updated, then post an issue about it, not a pull request. It is no more effort to just install it myself, and the security impacts of accepting dependency changes via pull request are simply too risky. - All discussions on issues and PRs must be in English. It doesn't have to be good English; I have a lot of experience using automated translations like Google Translate to discuss things across language barriers. Please do not be embarrassed about your language. Every culture is entitled to a place. This language is simply the one I use, and if posts are not in English, then it's more challenging for me to maintain the project.
While you are of course free to use whichever tools you find helpful, I am not interested in code contributions that were written by AI systems, unless you personally can demonstrate deep understanding of what is going on.
Large low-effort PRs authored by LLMs (or otherwise automatically machine-generated) will be dismissed, rudely if necessary.
By contributing to my project, you assert that you are legally entitled to make that code part of the projet, and that it is not (to the best of your knowledge) encumbered by any legal instrument or other reason why you would not be allowed to share it, and that you understand that the code you have contributed will be distributed under the same or similar license in the future, at my discretion.
If you do not or cannot agree to this, then please do not contribute. Instead, feel free to fork this project and make your changes in your own copy, insofar as the license allows.