# Contributing to LNP/BP Libraries The LNP/BP project operates an open contributor model where anyone is welcome to contribute towards development in the form of peer review, documentation, testing and patches. Everyone is invited to contribute without regard to technical experience, "expertise", OSS experience, age, or other concerns. However, the development of standards & reference implementations demands a high-level of rigor, adversarial thinking, thorough testing and risk-minimization. Any bug may cost users real money. That being said, we deeply welcome people contributing for the first time to an open source project or pick up Rust while contributing. Don't be shy, you'll learn. ## Communications Channels Communication happens in GitHub [Discussions](https://github.com/rust-amplify/rust-amplify/discussions). Discussion about code base improvements happens in GitHub issues and pull requests. Major projects are tracked [here](https://github.com/orgs/rust-amplify/projects). Major milestones are tracked [here](https://github.com/rust-amplify/rust-lnpbp/milestones). Contribution Workflow --------------------- The codebase is maintained using the "contributor workflow" where everyone without exception contributes patch proposals using "pull requests". This facilitates social contribution, easy testing and peer review. To contribute a patch, the worflow is a as follows: 1. Fork Repository 2. Create topic branch 3. Commit patches In general commits should be atomic and diffs should be easy to read. For this reason do not mix any formatting fixes or code moves with actual code changes. Further, each commit, individually, should compile and pass tests, in order to ensure git bisect and other automated tools function properly. When adding a new feature thought must be given to the long term technical debt. Every new feature should be covered by unit tests. When refactoring, structure your PR to make it easy to review and don't hestitate to split it into multiple small, focused PRs. The Minimal Supported Rust Version is nightly for the period of active development; it is enforced by our Travis. Later we plan to fix to some specific Rust version after the initial library release. Commits should cover both the issue fixed and the solution's rationale. These [guidelines](https://chris.beams.io/posts/git-commit/) should be kept in mind. To facilitate communication with other contributors, the project is making use of GitHub's "assignee" field. First check that no one is assigned and then comment suggesting that you're working on it. If someone is already assigned, don't hesitate to ask if the assigned party or previous commenters are still working on it if it has been awhile. Peer review ----------- Anyone may participate in peer review which is expressed by comments in the pull request. Typically reviewers will review the code for obvious errors, as well as test out the patch set and opine on the technical merits of the patch. PR should be reviewed first on the conceptual level before focusing on code style or grammar fixes. Coding Conventions ------------------ Rust-fmt should be used as a coding style recommendations in general, with a default coding style. By default, Rustfmt uses a style which conforms to the [Rust style guide][style guide] that has been formalized through the [style RFC process][fmt rfcs]. Security -------- Security is the primary focus of Rust-LNPBP; disclosure of security vulnerabilites helps prevent user loss of funds. If you believe a vulnerability may affect other implementations, please inform them. Note that rust-amplify is currently considered "pre-production" during this time, there is no special handling of security issues. Please simply open an issue on Github. Testing ------- Related to the security aspect, rust-amplify developers take testing very seriously. Due to the modular nature of the project, writing new functional tests is easy and good test coverage of the codebase is an important goal. Refactoring the project to enable fine-grained unit testing is also an ongoing effort. Fuzzing is heavily encouraged: feel free to add related material under `fuzz/` Mutation testing is planned; any contribution there would be warmly welcomed. Going further ------------- You may be interested in Jon Atack guide on [How to review Bitcoin Core PRs](https://github.com/jonatack/bitcoin-development/blob/master/how-to-review-bitcoin-core-prs.md) and [How to make Bitcoin Core PRs](https://github.com/jonatack/bitcoin-development/blob/master/how-to-make-bitcoin-core-prs.md). While there are differences between the projects in terms of context and maturity, many of the suggestions offered apply to this project. Overall, have fun :)