Contribute to nearai¶

Everyone is welcome to contribute, and we value everybody's contribution. Code contributions are not the only way to help the community. Answering questions, helping others, and improving documentation are also immensely valuable.

It also helps us if you spread the word! Reference the library in blog posts about the awesome projects it made possible, or even simply ⭐️ the repository to say thank you.

This guide was heavily inspired by the huggingface transformers guide to contributing.

Ways to contribute¶

There are several ways you can contribute to nearai:

• Fix outstanding issues with the existing code.
• Submit issues related to bugs or desired new features.
• Implement new features (including but not limited to solvers, agents, or benchmarks).
• Contribute to the examples or to the documentation.

Fixing outstanding issues¶

If you notice an issue with the existing code and have a fix in mind, feel free to start contributing and open a Pull Request!

Submitting a bug-related issue or feature request¶

Do your best to follow these guidelines when submitting a bug-related issue or a feature request. It will make it easier for us to come back to you quickly and with good feedback.

Did you find a bug?¶

nearai is alpha software. This means there is a possibility of encountering issues in the code. With help from users like you who report problems, we can make it more robust and reliable.

Before you report an issue, we would really appreciate it if you could make sure the bug was not already reported (use the search bar on GitHub under Issues). Your issue should also be related to bugs in the library itself, and not your code.

Once you've confirmed the bug hasn't already been reported, please include the following information in your issue so we can quickly resolve it:

• What did you do?
• What did you expect to happen?
• What happened instead?
• Your OS type and version and Python, PyTorch and versions where applicable.
• A short, self-contained, code snippet that allows us to reproduce the bug in less than 30s.
• The full traceback if an exception is raised.
• Attach any other additional information, like screenshots, you think may help.

To get the OS and software versions automatically, run the following command:

uname -a

Do you want a new feature?¶

If there is a new feature you'd like to see in nearai, please open an issue and describe:

1. What is the motivation behind this feature? Is it related to a problem or frustration with the library? Is it a feature related to something you need for a project? Is it something you worked on and think it could benefit the community?

Whatever it is, we'd love to hear about it!

1. Describe your requested feature in as much detail as possible. The more you can tell us about it, the better we'll be able to help you.
2. Provide a code snippet that demonstrates the feature usage.
3. If the feature is related to a paper, please include a link.

Create a Pull Request¶

Before writing any code, we strongly advise you to search through the existing PRs or issues to make sure nobody is already working on the same thing. If you are unsure, it is always a good idea to open an issue to get some feedback.

You will need basic git proficiency to contribute to nearai. While git is not the easiest tool to use, it has the greatest manual. Type git --help in a shell and enjoy! If you prefer books, Pro Git is a very good reference. We also recommend asking any available AGI to help you with git.

Follow the steps below to start contributing:

1. Fork the repository by clicking on the Fork button on the repository's page. This creates a copy of the code under your GitHub user account.

2. Clone your fork to your local disk, and add the base repository as a remote:

git clone git@github.com:<your Github handle>/nearai.git
cd nearai
git remote add upstream https://github.com/nearai/nearai.git

1. Create a new branch to hold your development changes:

git checkout -b a-descriptive-name-for-my-changes

🚨 Do not work on the main branch!

1. Set up a development environment (follow steps in the README):

2. Develop the features in your branch.

As you work on your code, you should make sure it functions as intended.

nearai relies on ruff and mypy to format and type check its source code consistently. After you make your changes and are ready to PR them, ensure that your code is formatted and type-checked by running:

./scripts/lint_format.sh

./scripts/typecheck.sh

Once you're happy with your changes, add the changed files with git add and record your changes locally with git commit:

git add modified_file.py
git commit

Please remember to write good commit messages to clearly communicate the changes you made!

To keep your copy of the code up to date with the original repository, rebase your branch on upstream/branch before you open a pull request or if requested by a maintainer:

git fetch upstream
git rebase upstream/main

Push your changes to your branch:

git push -u origin a-descriptive-name-for-my-changes

If you've already opened a pull request, you'll need to force push with the --force flag. Otherwise, if the pull request hasn't been opened yet, you can just push your changes normally.

1. Now you can go to your fork of the repository on GitHub and click on Pull Request to open a pull request. Make sure you tick off all the boxes on our checklist below. When you're ready, you can send your changes to the project maintainers for review.

2. It's ok if maintainers request changes, it happens to our core contributors too! So everyone can see the changes in the pull request, work in your local branch and push the changes to your fork. They will automatically appear in the pull request.

Pull request checklist¶

• The pull request title should summarize your contribution.
  
• If your pull request addresses an issue, please mention the issue number in the pull request description to make sure they are linked (and people viewing the issue know you are working on it).
  
• To indicate a work in progress please prefix the title with [WIP]. These are useful to avoid duplicated work, and to differentiate it from PRs ready to be merged.
  
• Don't add any images, videos and other non-text files that'll significantly weigh down the repository. Instead, reference them by URL.

Sync a forked repository with upstream main¶

When updating the main branch of a forked repository, please follow these steps to avoid pinging the upstream repository which adds reference notes to each upstream PR, and sends unnecessary notifications to the developers involved in these PRs.

1. When possible, avoid syncing with the upstream using a branch and PR on the forked repository. Instead, merge directly into the forked main.
2. If a PR is absolutely necessary, use the following steps after checking out your branch:

git checkout -b your-branch-for-syncing
git pull --squash --no-commit upstream main
git commit -m '<your message without GitHub references>'
git push --set-upstream origin your-branch-for-syncing