# 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.
Anyone is invited to contribute without regard to technical experience, "expertise", OSS
experience, age, or other concern. 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 about LNP/BP standards & imlementations happens primarily in Telegram group
https://t.me/rgbtelegram (due to historical reasons), but also #lnp-pb on IRC Freenode.
Discussion about code base improvements happens in GitHub issues and on pull
requests.
Major projects are tracked [here](https://github.com/orgs/LNP-BP/projects).
Major milestones are tracked [here](https://github.com/LNP-BP/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 features 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-LNPBP 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-LNPBP 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 by 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 :)