Chat

Chatting on Discord

The Flutter team uses a Discord server, which you are invited to join. The server is open to the public, though some channels are intended only for people who are actively contributing.

We recommend you use the same display name on Discord and GitHub.

Existing channels

We have different channels for different purposes (this list is not exhaustive):

Channel	Description	Participants
#welcome	Welcome message.	Only admins can post. Anyone can read.
#announcements	Flutter announcements (e.g. breaking changes).	Only team members can post (but not frequently). Anyone can read.
#server-support	Forum for asking for your role to be changed, for code of conduct violations to be raised, and for other administrative issues.	Anyone.
#general	Chat about anything related to Flutter.	Anyone.
#help	People asking for our help.	Anyone.
#dart	Questions about the Dart language.	Anyone.
#tree-status	Announcements about whether the trees are open or closed.	Anyone, but discussion should happen elsewhere.
#hackers	Chat about anything related to Flutter.	Flutter contributors. Anyone can watch.
#hackers-*	Chat specifically about foo, where foo is something to do with Flutter development, for example "engine", "framework", "add-to-app", etc.	Flutter contributors. Anyone can watch.
#hackers-dart	Questions about the Dart language.	Flutter contributors. Anyone can watch.
#hackers-devexp	For people working on tools that improve the developer experience.	Flutter tooling contributors. Anyone can watch.
#hackers-new	New people to the team and people who want to help them.	Flutter contributors. Anyone can watch.
#hackers-triage	For use while triaging bugs.	Flutter contributors. Anyone can watch.
#hidden-chat	Chat about anything related to Flutter.	Flutter contributors only. Not public.
general (voice)	Talk (audio) about anything related to Flutter.	Anyone.
team (voice)	Talk (audio) that is only open to team members.	Flutter contributors.

The #hidden-chat and #team channels are not publicly-readable, you have to be a member of the "team member" role to see them.

New channels

If you need a new channel, raise the topic in #server-support. Channels are cheap.

If you find your team's channel is hard to follow due to having too many topics discussed at once, ask for a new channel.

If you would like a channel for subcommunities, e.g. #women or #china, that should be fine. (Subcommunities that are already overrepresented in the main channels, e.g. #english-speakers, are less likely to be good candidates for dedicated channels.)

For practical reasons, we do not use Discord for chat groups limited to specific customers. For example, if your company wants a private discussion channel with the Flutter team, we would not use Discord.

Each channel describes its topic in the channel description. Please read the channel description before posting in a channel, to make sure you're using the appropriate one.

If you can't find an appropriate channel, use #hackers or ask for a new channel to be created. Again, channels are cheap.

Policies

Our code of conduct applies to the Discord server, as it does to any communications involving Flutter.

The #hackers-* channels are visible to anyone, but please only post in those channels if you are actively contributing. If you want help with your app, ask in #help instead. If you want to learn how to contribute, have a look at our contributing guide.

See the contributor access wiki page for details on becoming a member of the "team" role.

Please don't direct-message people unless they are comfortable with it (ask publicly first). You can disable direct messages on this server by changing your Privacy settings for the server, or on a global basis by changing your Privacy & Safety user settings.

Discord features

Threading

Discord has a threadingish feature called Replies that lets you tie messages to earlier messages and notify the original commenter.

Status

You can change your status (online, away, custom messages) by clicking on your avatar in Discord.

Design documents

If you want to write a design doc for people to review, we recommend using Google Docs. We have a template you can use, at flutter.dev/go/template. It describes the process for minting a flutter.dev/go/foo shortlink for your design doc. We recommend you use that template so that people can immediately recognize that this is a Flutter design document and that it is shared publicly.

Don't forget to share your document so that everyone has comment access. When creating the shortlink, remember to test the URL you are publishing in an incognito window!

Googlers: Design docs must be created by non-corp accounts! See Contributor Access for details on getting fcontrib.org accounts if you don't want to use your personal GMail account.

When you implement a design, document it in the source code in detail. The API documentation is the usual place where we document our designs. It's perfectly reasonable for API docs to be multiple pages long with subheadings (e.g. see the docs for RenderBox!). Do not assume that anyone will ever read your design doc after the discussion has finished. Similarly, do not assume that anyone will look at closed GitHub issues or PR discussions.

For future archeologists, a list of design documents can be found at https://flutter.dev/docs/resources/design-docs.