elsa-core/CONTRIBUTING.md
Sipke Schoorstra 6e870d9861
Enhance CONTRIBUTING.md with feature request guidelines
Added a section on feature requests and prioritization criteria to guide contributors.
2026-04-14 11:37:12 +02:00

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# Contributing to Elsa
Thank you for your interest in contributing to Elsa.
We value clarity, discipline, and maintainability in our codebase. Well-scoped pull requests and high-quality bug reports help us maintain velocity without sacrificing quality.
Whether you're:
- Reporting a bug
- Proposing a feature
- Submitting a fix
- Improving documentation
- Becoming a maintainer
— your contributions are welcome.
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## Development Workflow
Elsa follows **Trunk Based Development**.
All changes happen through Pull Requests targeting the `main` branch.
1. Fork the repository and create your branch from `main`.
2. If you've added code that should be tested, add tests.
3. If you've changed APIs, update documentation.
4. Ensure the test suite passes.
5. Open a Pull Request.
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## Pull Requests
We aim for PRs that are easy to review, easy to reason about, and safe to merge.
### 1) One PR = One Concern
Keep PRs focused on a single logical change:
- ✅ Bug fix
- ✅ Refactor (no behavior change)
- ✅ Formatting
- ✅ Dependency update
- ✅ Documentation change
- ❌ Mixing unrelated cleanups with functional changes
**Why:** Mixed concerns increase cognitive load, slow reviews, and increase merge risk.
If you notice cleanup opportunities while fixing a bug:
- Prefer a follow-up PR titled `refactor: ...` or `chore: ...`
- Or keep cleanup strictly limited to what is required for the fix
PRs that mix unrelated concerns may be asked to split before review continues.
---
### 2) Make Reviews Fast
A good PR includes:
- A clear problem statement
- Expected behavior
- Steps to reproduce (if applicable)
- Steps to verify the change
- Screenshots or video for UI changes (if applicable)
The easier your PR is to review, the faster it can be merged.
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### 3) Prefer Small PRs
Smaller PRs are:
- Easier to review
- Less risky to merge
- More likely to receive timely feedback
If a change is large, consider splitting it into incremental PRs.
---
## Reporting Bugs
We use GitHub Issues to track bugs and feature requests.
When reporting a bug, please include:
- A clear summary
- Steps to reproduce
- Expected behavior
- Actual behavior
- Relevant logs or screenshots
- Sample code (if applicable)
Thorough bug reports significantly increase the chance of a fast and accurate resolution.
---
## Feature Requests & Prioritization
Elsa Workflows is an open source project, and as such, not all feature requests can be implemented immediately or on demand.
Feature development is prioritized based on a combination of the following factors:
### 1. Project Vision & Roadmap
Some features align closely with the long-term direction of Elsa and are prioritized accordingly.
### 2. Real-World Demand
Features that are backed by concrete use cases, especially in production environments, are more likely to be prioritized.
If a feature is important for your scenario, providing context about how you plan to use it is extremely helpful.
### 3. Community Contributions
Contributions from the community are strongly encouraged.
If you are able to propose a design or submit a pull request, it can significantly accelerate progress. Maintainers are happy to collaborate and review contributions.
### 4. Available Time & Maintainer Bandwidth
Elsa is actively maintained, but development capacity is limited. As a result, some features may take time to be implemented.
### 5. Sponsored / Paid Work
Organizations that require specific features or timelines can engage through commercial support.
This allows dedicated time to be allocated to specific work items and can accelerate development significantly.
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### What This Means in Practice
- There are no guaranteed timelines for feature requests
- Some features may remain open until one of the above factors changes
- The best way to move a feature forward is to:
- Contribute a proposal or implementation
- Provide a strong real-world use case
- Sponsor or fund the work
---
We appreciate all feature requests and feedback — they help shape the direction of Elsa Workflows.
---
## License
By contributing, you agree that your contributions will be licensed under the project's MIT License.