How to Contribute

How to Contribute

Welcome to our project! Whether you are fixing a typo, adding a new feature, or proposing an idea, all contributions are welcome. No prior open-source experience is required.

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Quick Preparation

Before writing code, make sure your development environment is set up:

• Editor Setup Guide: Recommended setups for VS Code and JetBrains WebStorm.
• Git Setup and Workflow Guide: Installing Git, cloning, branching, and managing commits.

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Contribution Workflow

graph LR
    A[Find or Create Issue] --> B[Assign / Claim Issue]
    B --> C[Create Branch & Code]
    C --> D[Commit & Push]
    D --> E[Open Pull Request]
    E --> F[Review & Merge]

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1. Find or Create an Issue

Every contribution starts with a GitHub Issue:

• We encourage opening issues! If you discover a bug, have an idea for a new feature, or see something confusing in the documentation, please open an issue.
• Looking for something to work on? Check existing issues. Look for beginner-friendly labels like:
  • good first issue: Ideal for newcomers.
  • help wanted: Tasks that need extra hands.
  • bug or enhancement: Reported problems and feature requests.

2. Claim the Issue

To avoid duplicate work:

• Assign the issue to yourself if you have permission, or leave a quick comment: "I'd like to work on this!"
• A maintainer will confirm and assign it to you.

3. Build & Test Your Changes

1. Create a new branch from main (see Git Workflow).
2. Make your changes and test locally.
3. Commit with clear commit messages.

4. Open a Pull Request (PR)

1. Push your branch to GitHub and click "Compare & pull request".
2. Link the issue: In your PR description, write Fixes #<issue-number> or Closes #<issue-number> so the issue closes automatically when merged.
3. Fill out the PR template checklist and describe your changes.
4. Learn more from GitHub's Pull Request Guide.

5. Code Review

• Maintainers or teammates will review your PR and may suggest tweaks.
• Push any additional changes to the same branch—your PR will update automatically.
• Once approved and CI checks pass, your PR will be merged!

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Troubleshooting & Getting Help

Getting stuck is a normal part of development! If you run into merge conflicts, test failures, or environment setup issues:

1. Check our Handling Merge Conflicts section.
2. Search GitHub Docs.
3. Ask on Discord: Head over to the Nebula Discord Server and post your question in the project or engineering channels. Our community and maintainers are here to help.