Contributing

Requirements

coder requires Go 1.18+, Node 14+, and GNU Make.

Development Workflow

The following make commands and scripts used in development:

make bin builds binaries
make install installs binaries to $GOPATH/bin
make test
make release dry-runs a new release
./develop.sh hot-reloads for frontend development

Styling

Go Style

Contributions must adhere to Effective Go. Linting rules should be preferred over documenting styles (run ours with make lint); humans are error prone!

Read Go's Code Review Comments Wiki to find common comments made during reviews of Go code.

No Unused Packages

Coders write packages that are used during implementation. It's difficult to validate whether an abstraction is valid until it's checked against an implementation. This results in a larger changeset but provides reviewers with an educated perspective on the contribution.

Review

Taken from Go's review philosophy.

Coders value thorough reviews. Think of each review comment like a ticket: you are expected to somehow "close" it by acting on it, either by implementing the suggestion or convincing the reviewer otherwise.

After you update the change, go through the review comments and make sure to reply to every one. You can click the "Done" button to reply indicating that you've implemented the reviewer's suggestion; otherwise, click on "Reply" and explain why you have not, or what you have done instead.

It is perfectly normal for changes to go through several round of reviews, with one or more reviewers making new comments every time and then waiting for an updated change before reviewing again. All contributors, including experienced maintainers, are subject to the same review cycle; this process is not meant to be applied selectively or discourage anyone from contribution.