Contributing

Contributions are welcome. The CLI, engine, and desktop app live together in inferops/debark. The website lives in inferops/debark-site.

Start with a bug, question, or idea

Search existing issues, then use the feature request, bug report, or question form. You do not need to write code to suggest a feature or help improve a guide.

Discuss large changes, new dependencies, and public contract changes before implementation. The governance guide describes the decision process. Participation follows the Code of Conduct.

Make a focused change

Follow the repository’s CONTRIBUTING.md for fork setup, prerequisites, and current required checks. Create a branch from main. Keep the change focused and explain the behavior it fixes or adds.

The CLI and desktop are separate Go modules. Root Go checks do not test the GUI module. Run the checks for each affected module and the relevant apt or container integration tests when those paths change. Portable unit tests alone do not validate apt-backed behavior. For docs, check links, command examples, and consistency with the source.

For UI changes, exercise the visible behavior and keyboard navigation, and include screenshots when helpful. Improvements to accessibility and platform validation are welcome.

Sign off commits and open a pull request

Every product-repository commit needs a Developer Certificate of Origin sign-off. There is no CLA. Git uses the name and email in your configuration:

git diff --check
git add path/to/changed-file
git diff --cached
git commit -s -m "docs: clarify the installation steps"
git push -u origin your-branch

Replace the paths and branch name with your own. Open a PR targeting inferops/debark:main and fill in its template. Describe the problem, resulting behavior, and validation, including environment details and skipped tests. Do not include real snapshots, private signing keys, credentials, or sensitive machine inventories.

Required checks must pass and the branch must be up to date before merging. Maintainers use the same PR workflow. Push follow-up signed-off commits to the same branch to address checks or review feedback. DCO sign-off is separate from a cryptographic commit signature.

Documentation and website changes

For this website, follow the website README. Run npm run check, npm run build, and npm run check:links. Report the affected URL when suggesting a correction. Repository docs can be read offline; use a release tag to read the docs that shipped with that version.