14 Contributing contributing

Contributing

Development Principles

1. TDD (Test-Driven Development) — Write tests before production code
2. Safety First — All contributions must respect the safety model
3. Deterministic Tests — Tests must be offline, fast, and deterministic
4. Local-First — No external service dependencies in community mode

Test Requirements

• Framework: xUnit (C#) / pytest (Python)
• All tests must run offline
• No hardcoded API keys or secrets
• Each individual test < 5 seconds
• Same input → same result

Build and Test

.NET Projects

# Restore
dotnet restore KrnlAICommunity.slnx

# Build
dotnet build KrnlAICommunity.slnx

# Test all
dotnet test KrnlAICommunity.slnx

# Test specific project
dotnet test tests/KrnlAI.Cli.Tests/KrnlAI.Cli.Tests.csproj

# Test with filter
dotnet test --filter "FullyQualifiedName~SafetyCommandTests"

Python SDK

cd sdk/python
pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest

Web/Tauri

cd src/KrnlAI.Desktop.Tauri
npm install
npm run build
npm run test

Pull Request Checklist

• Build with no errors or warnings
• All tests passing
• New code has corresponding tests
• Tests written BEFORE code (TDD)
• No tests depending on network/external services
• Updated documentation if applicable
• Changes are focused on a single concern

Good First Issues

• Documentation improvements
• Sample code and patterns
• Small CLI workflow additions
• Test coverage for existing features
• Provider examples for new LLM backends
• Bug fixes with simple reproduction

Code Style

• C#: Nullable enabled, implicit usings, latest language version
• Python: Type hints, async/await patterns
• Follow existing conventions in the codebase you're modifying

Getting Help

• GitHub Issues — Bug reports and feature requests
• GitHub Discussions — Q&A and community showcase