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Contribution Guidelines

We're excited that you are considering contributing to Grid! The following guidelines will help us create an efficient environment for contributions.

Feature Development​

If you are interested in contributing features to Grid, we have a structured process to ensure all new features align with our mission and user experience goals:

  1. Initial Discussion: Start by joining our Matrix chat to discuss and submit your feature idea in the Feature Development & Contributions room
  2. Feature Proposal: Please submit a formal feature request using our Feature Request Template
  3. Pre-Approval: Wait for explicit approval before starting any development
  4. Implementation: Once approved, please stay in touch/follow our guidelines so we can work the feature into the appropriate sprint/update

This process helps us:

  • Maintain consistent user experience
  • Ensure privacy-first design
  • Avoid duplicate efforts
  • Keep features aligned with Grid's mission

This is likely to be a fluid process and subject to change in the future as we figure out what works best!

Understanding Our User Base​

Grid serves both self-hosted users and everyday privacy-conscious individuals. While we support self-hosting capabilities, our primary focus is making privacy accessible to everyone. This means maintaining an interface and experience that's intuitive for users who may not have technical expertise or their own servers.

Issue Guidelines​

Using the Issue Tracker​

Our GitHub issue tracker is specifically for bug reports. Please format bug reports as: "User Reported Issue: [Description]"

Include relevant notes and screenshots when possible.

For feature requests and general questions, please use:

Issue Management​

  • No Issue Bumping: Each comment generates a notification. As a small team, we need to manage our notification volume.
  • Open Issues: We review every issue and prioritize based on user impact. Open issues are actively tracked.
  • Contributions Welcome: We encourage contributions to open issues.
  • Closed Issues: An issue is closed only when it has been addressed.

Pull Request Guidelines​

Key Principles​

  1. Keep Changes Focused: As a two-person team with one developer, we prefer smaller, focused pull requests.
  2. CLA Required: You must sign our Contributor License Agreement before we can merge your pull request.
  3. Submit Complete Work: Please ensure your pull requests are:
    • Fully completed (not works in progress)
    • Thoroughly tested
    • Ready to merge
    • Follow our coding standards and conventions
    • Include appropriate documentation updates

Review Process​

Our review timeline may vary. If your pull request hasn't been merged despite following all guidelines, it likely means we haven't had time to review it yet. We appreciate your patience - remember, we're a small team (two humans + four non-contributing cats) with plans to grow.

Alternative Ways to Contribute​

There are many valuable ways to contribute beyond code:

  • Help new users learn about Grid
  • Direct support questions to our communication channels
  • Help identify duplicate issues
  • Assist with issue reproduction and troubleshooting
  • Research and share solutions to open issues
  • Test others' pull requests
  • Spread the word about Grid to friends and family

Our Mission​

Grid was created to advance digital privacy rights, with user experience as our top priority. We deeply value all forms of feedback, support, and community engagement!