scholarr/CONTRIBUTING.md

Contributing

Scope

This project favors small, reviewable pull requests that keep runtime behavior clear and operationally safe.

Essential-File Policy

Commit only source-of-truth files required to build, run, test, or document the app.

Do not commit generated or local-only artifacts, including:

• __pycache__/, *.pyc, .pytest_cache/, .mypy_cache/, .ruff_cache/
• frontend build/install outputs like frontend/dist/, frontend/node_modules/, frontend/.vite/
• coverage outputs (.coverage, htmlcov/)
• packaging/build leftovers (*.egg-info/, build/, dist/)
• local probe/scratch material (planning/)

CI enforces this with scripts/check_no_generated_artifacts.sh.

Merge Checklist

• Changes are minimal, purposeful, and remove obsolete/dead code in touched areas.
• Backend tests pass (uv run pytest tests/unit and integration scope as needed).
• Frontend checks pass (npm run typecheck, npm run test:run, npm run build).
• API/behavior docs are updated when env vars, endpoints, or payloads change.
• README.md, .env.example, and deployment notes stay aligned.
• scripts/check_no_generated_artifacts.sh passes locally.