Overview
We are increasingly labeling small, well-scoped features as Help-Wanted (for example #1003 and #1058) to invite community contributions. To set new contributors up for success - and to keep the quality bar high - our contributor guidance needs to clearly communicate our expectations before someone starts work.
This is a tracking issue for a set of documentation and process improvements. Each sub-issue can be addressed by its own PR that closes it, moving us toward the broader goal.
Goals
- Give new contributors clear, discoverable orientation to the project and our expectations.
- Set explicit expectations for tests, coding conventions, and evidence that a change works.
- Establish a guardrail so we are not opening the floodgates to low-effort AI-generated PRs, while still welcoming responsible AI-assisted contributions.
- Reinforce the existing "to spec or not to spec" flow for
Issue-Feature work.
Work items
Engineers will be looped in on the sub-issues where the team needs to define or ratify specifics (e.g., the exact testing bar, the coding conventions themselves, and the wording of the AI policy).
Follow-up (dependent on the above)
Once the guidance is in good shape, add a policy bot rule (.github/policies/) so that when the Help-Wanted label is applied to an issue, a concise orientation comment is posted linking contributors to the updated guidance (spec-or-not, tests required, evidence expected, AI policy). Tracked separately once these land.
(Created with GitHub Copilot assistance.)
Overview
We are increasingly labeling small, well-scoped features as
Help-Wanted(for example #1003 and #1058) to invite community contributions. To set new contributors up for success - and to keep the quality bar high - our contributor guidance needs to clearly communicate our expectations before someone starts work.This is a tracking issue for a set of documentation and process improvements. Each sub-issue can be addressed by its own PR that closes it, moving us toward the broader goal.
Goals
Issue-Featurework.Work items
CONTRIBUTING.md(sub-issue)Engineers will be looped in on the sub-issues where the team needs to define or ratify specifics (e.g., the exact testing bar, the coding conventions themselves, and the wording of the AI policy).
Follow-up (dependent on the above)
Once the guidance is in good shape, add a policy bot rule (
.github/policies/) so that when theHelp-Wantedlabel is applied to an issue, a concise orientation comment is posted linking contributors to the updated guidance (spec-or-not, tests required, evidence expected, AI policy). Tracked separately once these land.(Created with GitHub Copilot assistance.)