cc-haha/docs/en/guide/contributing.md

Contributing and Local Quality Gates

This guide explains how to install, develop, test, and run the local quality gates before opening a PR. The goal is to help maintainers and contributors answer one question before review: did this change break the core Coding Agent workflow?

Setup

Install root dependencies with Bun:

bun install

If your change touches desktop/, also install desktop dependencies:

cd desktop
bun install

If your change touches adapters/, or if you run check:adapters / check:native, install adapter dependencies:

cd adapters
bun install

Do not commit local artifacts such as artifacts/quality-runs/, node_modules/, or desktop/node_modules/.

Path-Aware PR Checks

First ask the repository which deterministic checks match the changed paths:

bun run check:impact

Run the selected focused commands while developing. Before claiming PR-ready, for a high-risk change, or when reproducing the full hosted CI locally, use the unified entrypoint:

bun run verify

bun run verify is equivalent to bun run quality:pr. It runs the selected policy, desktop, server, adapter, native, provider contract, chat contract, persistence, docs, and coverage lanes, without calling real models. Small external contributions do not need to run unrelated modules locally; GitHub CI runs the exact path-aware gate again.

The main quality report embeds the current test scope, result matrix, coverage summary, and links to the full coverage/JUnit/log artifacts:

artifacts/quality-runs/<timestamp>/report.md
artifacts/quality-runs/<timestamp>/report.json
artifacts/quality-runs/<timestamp>/junit.xml
artifacts/quality-runs/<timestamp>/logs/*.log
artifacts/coverage/<timestamp>/coverage-report.md
artifacts/coverage/<timestamp>/coverage-report.json

Include the commands you ran and the report summary in your PR description. quality:pr / quality:verify remain available for contributors who prefer explicit quality command names, but docs and AI prompts should prefer bun run verify.

The coverage gate does four things: measures source-only coverage, enforces the baseline ratchet, reports target gaps against 75-80%+ maintained-area goals, and enforces changed-line coverage for new or modified executable production lines. The current baseline lives in scripts/quality-gate/coverage-baseline.json, and CI compares against the base branch baseline when available. New PRs must not lower coverage beyond the allowed window. Changes to coverage-baseline.json or coverage-thresholds.json require the maintainer-only allow-coverage-baseline-change label. Quarantine is reserved for maintainer baseline/release tracking and must never hide deterministic provider/chat contract tests; the normal PR gate does not depend on quarantine to pass.

AI Coding Agent Fix Loop

When asking an AI coding agent to work in this repo, use this as the acceptance instruction:

Run `bun run check:impact`, then run the selected focused checks. If the task
requires PR-ready/full validation, run `bun run verify`. If it fails, read the latest
`artifacts/quality-runs/<timestamp>/report.md` and the relevant lane log,
fix the missing tests, coverage failures, type/lint/build errors, or docs/native
failures, then rerun `bun run verify` until it passes. Do not lower coverage
baselines or thresholds unless a maintainer explicitly requested it.

Agents should handle failures in this order:

1. Start with the Summary and Result Matrix in artifacts/quality-runs/<timestamp>/report.md to identify the failing lane.
2. If Path-aware PR checks failed, check for missing same-area tests, CLI core changes, or coverage policy changes. Do not bypass normal feature PRs with maintainer overrides.
3. If Coverage gate failed, open artifacts/coverage/<timestamp>/coverage-report.md or coverage-report.json, then fix changedLines.failures and failures first. targetGaps are technical-debt signals; touched areas should still improve.
4. If desktop/server/adapters/native/docs failed, read artifacts/quality-runs/<timestamp>/logs/<lane>.log, add tests or fix the build, then rerun the narrow command.
5. After narrow checks pass, run bun run verify when claiming PR-ready/full validation. The agent may only make that claim when the final Summary has failed=0.

External reference points:

• Google Testing Blog: 60% acceptable, 75% commendable, 90% exemplary; 90% is a reasonable lower threshold for changed/per-commit coverage.
• Microsoft Visual Studio / Azure DevOps docs: teams typically target about 80%, typical project requirements can be 75%, and generated code may be relaxed.
• ChromiumOS EC: new or changed lines require at least 80% coverage.

Feature Quality Contract

Every feature, bugfix, and behavior change must ship with verifiable evidence. This rule applies to human authors and AI coding agents:

• Name the changed surface first: desktop, server, adapter, native, docs, provider/runtime, agent-loop, or release.
• Production changes under desktop/src, src/server, src/tools, src/utils, or adapters must include same-area tests in the same PR unless a maintainer explicitly applies allow-missing-tests.
• Pure logic needs unit tests. Server/API/provider/runtime behavior needs API or request-shape tests. Desktop UI/store/API behavior needs Vitest or Testing Library coverage. Cross-boundary user flows through UI, WebSocket, provider proxying, native sidecars, or release packaging need E2E or agent-browser smoke.
• Agent loop, tool execution, provider routing, model selection, file editing, permissions, session resume, and desktop chat changes need mock/fixture tests in PR, plus live smoke or baseline evidence when provider access is available.
• Coverage is part of the feature. This project follows a Google/Microsoft-style policy: generated/build output is not counted as product coverage, maintained product areas should move toward 75-80%+, and new or changed executable production lines must pass the changed-line coverage threshold in coverage-thresholds.json.
• Do not lower coverage-baseline.json or coverage-thresholds.json just to pass the gate; real baseline/threshold changes require allow-coverage-baseline-change and a reason. Legacy low-coverage areas are debt; new PRs must leave touched areas better than they found them.
• The PR description must record changed files, tests added, coverage report path, E2E/live report path or blocker, and remaining risk.

Local Pre-Push Reminder

push no longer runs a local quality gate. Run checks manually when needed:

bun run quality:push

bun run quality:push reuses the PR gate impact, policy, and path-aware checks, but skips the expensive coverage lane by default; full coverage remains in bun run verify, bun run quality:pr, and CI.

You can still install the local pre-push hook, but it only prints a non-blocking reminder and never blocks git push:

bun run hooks:install

Maintainers with a trusted repository environment and model quota can run real provider smoke and desktop agent-browser smoke manually:

bun run quality:providers
bun run quality:smoke -- --provider-model minimax:main:minimax-main

To run the full live baseline, use:

bun run quality:gate --mode baseline --allow-live --provider-model minimax:main:minimax-main

PR CI Merge Gate

.github/workflows/pr-quality.yml runs for PR opened, synchronize, reopened, ready_for_review, labeled, and unlabeled events. scope-plan installs no dependencies and only produces the stable impact plan. policy-enforcement installs the frozen dependency graph independently and runs policy, so a policy failure cannot swallow product-test results. Product jobs depend only on scope-plan and select desktop, server, adapter, native, provider contract, chat contract, persistence, docs, and coverage lanes by path. The final pr-quality-gate validates every result strictly: selected jobs must succeed, unselected jobs must be skipped, and cancelled or missing results cannot be mistaken for success.

Repository settings should protect main with GitHub branch protection / rulesets and require the pr-quality-gate status check. CODEOWNERS requires maintainer review for workflows, quality policy, and high-risk provider/WebSocket boundaries. The local hook only reminds; the PR gate is what blocks low-quality merges.

Area-Specific Checks

Run the checks that match the files you changed:

bun run check:server      # Server API, WebSocket, providers, sessions, and related tests
bun run check:desktop     # Desktop lint, Vitest, and production build
bun run check:adapters    # IM adapter tests
bun run check:native      # Desktop sidecars, Electron host, and package-smoke checks
bun run check:provider-contract # Offline provider/runtime/proxy contract tests
bun run check:chat-contract     # WebSocket, session, and desktop chat-store contracts
bun run check:persistence-upgrade # Persistence migrations and old-fixture compatibility
bun run check:docs        # Docs build, using npm ci + docs:build
bun run check:quarantine  # Maintainer baseline/release quarantine audit
bun run check:coverage    # Root, desktop, and adapter coverage reports plus ratchet enforcement

Focused tests are the normal development loop. Run bun run verify locally when claiming PR-ready/full validation; hosted CI still executes every selected required lane.

Production code changes must include matching tests. Changes under desktop/src/**, src/server/**, src/tools/**, src/utils/**, or adapters/** without a same-area test file are blocked unless a maintainer applies allow-missing-tests. Coverage baseline/threshold changes are also blocked unless a maintainer applies allow-coverage-baseline-change.

Live Model Baseline

quality:baseline runs real Coding Agent tasks: it starts the local server, creates isolated fixtures, asks a model through chat to fix code, runs tests, and saves transcripts, diffs, verification logs, and a report. It also runs provider live smoke: saved or active OpenAI-compatible providers validate connectivity, proxy conversion, and streaming proxy behavior; env-only provider smoke validates upstream connectivity and the transform pipeline.

The default baseline command does not call real models:

bun run quality:baseline

To actually call models, pass --allow-live and choose a local provider.

First list your local providers and copyable selectors:

bun run quality:providers

Example output:

Saved providers:
  MiniMax
    selector: minimax
    main: MiniMax-M2.7-highspeed
      --provider-model minimax:main:minimax-main

Copy one of the listed values:

bun run quality:gate --mode baseline --allow-live --provider-model minimax:main:minimax-main

To run only provider smoke plus desktop agent-browser smoke, use:

bun run quality:smoke --provider-model minimax:main:minimax-main

You can run multiple models in one pass:

bun run quality:gate --mode baseline --allow-live \
  --provider-model codingplan:main:codingplan-main \
  --provider-model minimax:main:minimax-main

Provider selectors come from the providers saved in your local Desktop Settings > Providers page. Contributors do not need the maintainer's provider UUIDs or vendor accounts. They can add their own provider locally, run bun run quality:providers, and choose their own model.

If you do not have a saved provider, you can run one unsaved provider smoke with environment variables:

QUALITY_GATE_PROVIDER_BASE_URL=https://example.com \
QUALITY_GATE_PROVIDER_API_KEY=... \
QUALITY_GATE_PROVIDER_MODEL=model-id \
QUALITY_GATE_PROVIDER_API_FORMAT=openai_chat \
bun run quality:gate --mode baseline --allow-live

When To Run The Baseline

After deterministic contract/E2E checks pass, a trusted maintainer should run the live baseline for changes touching:

• Desktop chat, session resume, WebSocket, or the CLI bridge
• Provider, model, or runtime selection
• Permissions, tool calls, file edits, and task execution
• agent-browser smoke, Computer Use, Skills, or MCP
• Release preparation or broad cross-module refactors

External PRs from forks do not receive repository secrets, and contributors are not expected to pay for model calls. Record live model: not run (untrusted fork / no provider) in the PR. A maintainer should add live evidence before merging or releasing high-risk changes; missing live evidence must not make deterministic PR lanes flaky.

Release Gate

Before a release, run release mode:

bun run quality:gate --mode release --allow-live --provider-model <selector>:main

Release mode composes PR checks, baseline catalog validation, live baseline cases, provider smoke, native checks, and current-platform canonical release package-smoke --package-kind release. Reports are written to artifacts/quality-runs/<timestamp>/. The hosted release workflow now runs bun run verify as a non-live preflight before the packaging matrix; maintainers still need to run the live release gate explicitly with an available provider.

In release mode, live lanes are not allowed to be silently skipped. Missing providers, model quota, or external account access will fail the gate and must be recorded as a release blocker.

PR Workflow

1. Create a product branch such as fix/session-reconnect or feat/provider-quality-gate.
2. Install dependencies and make the change.
3. Add tests for behavior changes.
4. Run focused checks for the affected area.
5. Optional: run bun run hooks:install to show a non-blocking reminder before later pushes.
6. Run bun run verify if you are claiming PR-ready/full validation.
7. A trusted maintainer runs the live baseline for high-risk changes; external contributors only record why it was not run.
8. In the PR description, include user impact, verification commands, coverage/quality report summary, and known risks.

FAQ

Can I run checks without a provider?

Yes. Run the impact report and its selected deterministic checks:

bun run check:impact

bun run verify also needs no real model. Only the live baseline does. Maintainers can add a provider in Desktop Settings > Providers, then run:

bun run quality:providers

What if provider selectors conflict?

If two provider names produce the same selector, quality:providers falls back to the provider ID. Copy the --provider-model ... value it prints.

What if a model ID contains a colon?

Prefer role selectors:

--provider-model custom:haiku:custom-haiku

The runner resolves haiku to the real model ID from your local provider configuration.