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CONTRIBUTING

Contributing

Branch Strategy

The Clue project follows a Git flow branching model to ensure stable releases and organized development:

Main Branches

  • main: Contains production-ready code. All releases are tagged from this branch. Direct commits to main are restricted.
  • develop: The integration branch for new features and the primary development branch. All feature branches are created from and merged back into develop.

Supporting Branches

  • Feature branches: Created from develop for new features or enhancements. Use descriptive names like feature/add-oauth-provider or feature/improve-caching.
  • Release branches: Created from develop when preparing for a new release (e.g., release/v2.1.0). Used for final testing and minor bug fixes.
  • Hotfix branches: Created from main for critical bug fixes that need immediate deployment (e.g., hotfix/security-patch).

Development Workflow

  1. Feature Development: Create a feature branch from develop
  2. Integration: Merge completed features into develop via pull request
  3. Release Preparation: Create a release branch from develop when ready for release
  4. Production Release: Merge release branch into both main and develop, then tag the release
  5. Hotfixes: If critical issues are found in production, create hotfix branches from main

Pull Request Process

All code changes must go through the pull request process to ensure code quality and maintain project standards:

For Contributors with Write Access

  1. Create Feature Branch: Create a new branch from develop with a descriptive name
git checkout develop
git pull origin develop
git checkout -b feature/your-feature-name

  1. Implement Changes: Make your changes, following the project's coding standards and including appropriate tests

  2. Open Pull Request: Create a PR targeting the develop branch with:

  3. Clear, descriptive title
  4. Detailed description of changes
  5. Reference to any related issues
  6. Screenshots or examples if applicable

For External Contributors

  1. Fork Repository: Fork the Clue repository to your GitHub account

  2. Clone and Setup: Clone your fork and set up the development environment as described in this guide

  3. Create Feature Branch: Create a branch from develop in your fork

  4. Implement and Test: Make your changes and ensure all checks pass

  5. Submit Pull Request: Open a PR from your fork's feature branch to the main repository's develop branch

Review Process

  • Required Approvals: All pull requests require at least two approvals from project maintainers

  • Automated Checks: PRs must pass all automated checks including:

  • Unit tests and integration tests

  • Code formatting and linting
  • Type checking

  • Security scans

  • Code Review: Reviewers will examine:

  • Code quality and adherence to project standards
  • Test coverage and quality
  • Documentation updates if needed
  • Security implications
  • Performance considerations

Merge and Release

  • Merge to Develop: Once approved and all checks pass, the PR is merged into develop
  • Release Cycle: Features merged into develop will be included in the next release when develop is merged into main
  • Release Timeline: Release schedules are determined by the project maintainers based on feature readiness and testing completion. There's no guaranteed duration from merge to release.

Best Practices

In order to maintain high code quality in clue:

  • Keep PRs focused and reasonably sized
  • Include comprehensive test coverage for new features
  • Update documentation for user-facing changes
  • Rebase your branch if requested to maintain a clean history
  • All PRs will be squash merged into the trunk.

Getting Help

You can reach the Clue developemnt team on the CCCS aurora discord: https://discord.gg/GUAy9wErNu