chatmail-core/CONTRIBUTING.md

# Contributing to chatmail core

## Bug reports

If you found a bug, [report it on GitHub](https://github.com/chatmail/core/issues).
If the bug you found is specific to
[Android](https://github.com/deltachat/deltachat-android/issues),
[iOS](https://github.com/deltachat/deltachat-ios/issues) or
[Desktop](https://github.com/deltachat/deltachat-desktop/issues),
report it to the corresponding repository.

## Feature proposals

If you have a feature request, create a new topic on the [forum](https://support.delta.chat/).

## Code contributions

If you want to contribute a code, follow this guide.

1. **Select an issue to work on.**

   If you have an write access to the repository, assign the issue to yourself.
   Otherwise state in the comment that you are going to work on the issue
   to avoid duplicate work.

   If the issue does not exist yet, create it first.

2. **Write the code.**

   Follow the [coding conventions](STYLE.md) when writing the code.

3. **Commit the code.**

   If you have write access to the repository,
   push a branch named `<username>/<feature>`
   so it is clear who is responsible for the branch,
   and open a PR proposing to merge the change.
   Otherwise fork the repository and create a branch in your fork.

   Commit messages follow the [Conventional Commits] notation.
   We use [git-cliff] to generate the changelog from commit messages before the release.

   With **`git cliff --unreleased`**, you can check how the changelog entry for your commit will look.

   The following prefix types are used:
   - `feat`: Features, e.g. "feat: Pause IO for BackupProvider". If you are unsure what's the category of your commit, you can often just use `feat`.
   - `fix`: Bug fixes, e.g. "fix: delete `smtp` rows when message sending is canceled"
   - `api`: API changes, e.g. "api(rust): add `get_msg_read_receipts(context, msg_id)`"
   - `refactor`: Refactorings, e.g. "refactor: iterate over `msg_ids` without `.iter()`"
   - `perf`: Performance improvements, e.g. "perf: improve SQLite performance with `PRAGMA synchronous=normal`"
   - `test`: Test changes and improvements to the testing framework.
   - `build`: Build system and tool configuration changes, e.g. "build(git-cliff): put "ci" commits into "CI" section of changelog"
   - `ci`: CI configuration changes, e.g. "ci: limit artifact retention time for `libdeltachat.a` to 1 day"
   - `docs`: Documentation changes, e.g. "docs: add contributing guidelines"
   - `chore`: miscellaneous tasks, e.g. "chore: add `.DS_Store` to `.gitignore`"

   Release preparation commits are marked as "chore(release): prepare for X.Y.Z"
   as described in [releasing guide](RELEASE.md).

   Use a `!` to mark breaking changes, e.g. "api!: Remove `dc_chat_can_send`".

   Alternatively, breaking changes can go into the commit description, e.g.:

   ```
   fix: Fix race condition and db corruption when a message was received during backup

   BREAKING CHANGE: You have to call `dc_stop_io()`/`dc_start_io()` before/after `dc_imex(DC_IMEX_EXPORT_BACKUP)`
   ```

4. [**Open a Pull Request**](https://github.com/chatmail/core/pulls).

   Refer to the corresponding issue.

   If you intend to squash merge the PR from the web interface,
   make sure the PR title follows the conventional commits notation
   as it will end up being a commit title.
   Otherwise make sure each commit title follows the conventional commit notation.

5. **Make sure all CI checks succeed.**

   CI runs the tests and checks code formatting.

   While it is running, self-review your PR to make sure all the changes you expect are there
   and there are no accidentally committed unrelated changes and files.

   Push the necessary fixup commits or force-push to your branch if needed.

6. **Ask for review.**

   Use built-in GitHub feature to request a review from suggested reviewers.

   If you do not have write access to the repository, ask for review in the comments.

7. **Merge the PR.**

   Once a PR has an approval and passes CI, it can be merged.

   PRs from a branch created in the main repository,
   i.e. authored by those who have write access, are merged by their authors.

   This is to ensure that PRs are merged as intended by the author,
   e.g. as a squash merge, by rebasing from the web interface or manually from the command line.

   If you have multiple changes in one PR, do a rebase merge.
   Otherwise, you should usually do a squash merge.

   If PR author does not have write access to the repository,
   maintainers who reviewed the PR can merge it.

   If you do not have access to the repository and created a PR from a fork,
   ask the maintainers to merge the PR and say how it should be merged.

## Other ways to contribute

For other ways to contribute, refer to the [website](https://delta.chat/en/contribute).

You can find the list of good first issues
and a link to this guide
on the contributing page: <https://github.com/chatmail/core/contribute>

[Conventional Commits]: https://www.conventionalcommits.org/
[git-cliff]: https://git-cliff.org/