Everyone is welcome to contribute to the Matrix specification!
Please ensure that you sign off your contributions. See Sign off below.
The documentation style is described at https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-spec/blob/main/meta/documentation_style.rst.
Matrix-spec workflows --------------------
The Matrix specification documents the APIs which Matrix clients and servers use. For this to be effective, the APIs need to be present and working correctly in a server before they can be documented in the specification. This process can take some time to complete.
Changes to the protocol (new endpoints, ideas, etc) need to go through the proposals process.
The above process is unnecessary for smaller changes, and those which do not put new requirements on servers. This category of changes includes the following:
- Changes to the scripts used to generate the specification.
- Addition of features which have been in use in practice for some time, but have never made it into the spec (including anything with the spec-omission label).
Likewise, corrections to the specification, to fix situations where, in practice, servers and clients behave differently to the specification, including anything with the spec-bug label.
(If there is any doubt about whether it is the spec or the implementations that need fixing, please discuss it with us first in #matrix-spec:matrix.org.)
Clarifications to the specification which do not change the behaviour of Matrix servers or clients in a way which might introduce compatibility problems for existing deployments. This includes anything with the clarification label.
For example, areas where the specification is unclear do not require a proposal to fix. On the other hand, introducing new behaviour is best represented by a proposal.
- Design or aesthetic changes, such as improving accessibility, colour schemes, etc. Please check in with us at #matrix-docs:matrix.org with your proposed design change before opening a PR so we can work with you on it.
For such changes, please do just open a pull request. If you're not sure if your change is covered by the above, please visit #matrix-spec:matrix.org and ask.
All changes to the contents of this repository require a changelog entry. Adding to the changelog can only be done after you've opened your pull request, so be sure to do that first.
The changelog is managed by Towncrier in the form of "news fragments". Depending on which API you changed, an entry should be added to each relevant API's newsfragments directory. A directory exists for each API under changelogs/. For instance, news fragments for the client-server API are stored under changelogs/client_server/newsfragments. Any changes to the repository that do not affect the spec content itself, such as changes to the build script, formatting, CSS, etc. should be documented under changelogs/internal/newsfragments.
To create a changelog entry, create a file named in the format prNumber.type in the newsfragments directory. The type can be one of the following:
new- Used when adding new endpoints. Please have the file contents be the method and route being added, surrounded in markdown code tags. For example: `POST /accounts/whoami`.feature- Used when adding backwards-compatible changes to the API.clarification- Used when an area of the spec is being improved upon and does not change or introduce any functionality.breaking- Used when the change is not backwards compatible.deprecation- Used when deprecating something.
All news fragments must have a brief summary explaining the change in the contents of the file. The summary must end in a full stop to be in line with the style guide and formatting must be done using Markdown.
We ask that everybody who contributes to this project signs off their contributions, as explained below.
We follow a simple 'inbound=outbound' model for contributions: the act of submitting an 'inbound' contribution means that the contributor agrees to license their contribution under the same terms as the project's overall 'outbound' license - in our case, this is Apache Software License v2 (see LICENSE).
In order to have a concrete record that your contribution is intentional and you agree to license it under the same terms as the project's license, we've adopted the same lightweight approach used by the Linux Kernel, Docker <https://github.com/docker/docker/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md, and many other projects: the Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO). This is a simple declaration that you wrote the contribution or otherwise have the right to contribute it to Matrix:
Developer Certificate of Origin
Version 1.1
Copyright (C) 2004, 2006 The Linux Foundation and its contributors.
660 York Street, Suite 102,
San Francisco, CA 94110 USA
Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this
license document, but changing it is not allowed.
Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1
By making a contribution to this project, I certify that:
(a) The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I
have the right to submit it under the open source license
indicated in the file; or
(b) The contribution is based upon previous work that, to the best
of my knowledge, is covered under an appropriate open source
license and I have the right under that license to submit that
work with modifications, whether created in whole or in part
by me, under the same open source license (unless I am
permitted to submit under a different license), as indicated
in the file; or
(c) The contribution was provided directly to me by some other
person who certified (a), (b) or (c) and I have not modified
it.
(d) I understand and agree that this project and the contribution
are public and that a record of the contribution (including all
personal information I submit with it, including my sign-off) is
maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed consistent with
this project or the open source license(s) involved.If you agree to this for your contribution, then all that's needed is to include the line in your commit or pull request comment:
Signed-off-by: Your Name <your@email.example.org>...using your real name; unfortunately pseudonyms and anonymous contributions can't be accepted. Git makes this trivial - just use the -s flag when you do git commit, having first set user.name and user.email git configs (which you should have done anyway :)
If you would like to provide your legal name privately to the Matrix.org Foundation (instead of in a public commit or comment), you can do so by emailing your legal name and a link to the pull request to dco@matrix.org. It helps to include "sign off" or similar in the subject line. You will then be instructed further.
Once private sign off is complete, doing so for future contributions will not be required.