Contributing

First off, thank you for considering contributing to docmd! It’s people like you that make the open-source community an amazing place to learn, inspire, and create.

We welcome contributions of all kinds, from fixing typos to engineering entirely new plugins.

Ways to Contribute

🐛 Bug Reports

Find something that isn’t working right? Open an issue on GitHub. Please include your OS, Node version, and steps to reproduce.

✨ Feature Requests

Have an idea to make docmd better? Open an issue and let’s discuss it before you start writing code!

📝 Documentation

This very website is built with docmd! You can contribute by fixing typos, improving recipes, or adding clearer examples.

💻 Code Contributions

Want to get your hands dirty? We happily accept Pull Requests for core engine improvements, UI polish, and new features.

Development Setup

docmd is built as a Monorepo using pnpm. Developing it locally requires a specific workflow to ensure all the internal packages (core, UI, themes, plugins) talk to each other correctly.

Prerequisites
Ensure you have Node.js (v18+) and pnpm installed on your machine.
```
npm install -g pnpm
```
Fork and Clone
Fork the repository on GitHub, then clone your fork locally:
```
git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/docmd.git
cd docmd
```
Install Dependencies
Use pnpm to install all dependencies and link the monorepo workspaces together.
```
pnpm install
```
Running the Dev Server
We use this documentation site (located in the docs/ folder) as our primary testing ground. To start the development server and watch for changes in both the documentation and the core engine:
```
# Windows (PowerShell)
$env:DOCMD_DEV="true"; pnpm run dev

# macOS / Linux
DOCMD_DEV=true pnpm run dev
```
Note: Setting DOCMD_DEV=true tells the watcher to monitor the internal templates, UI scripts, and engine logic, automatically rebuilding the site when you edit source files.

Testing Your Changes

Before submitting a Pull Request, you must ensure your changes haven’t broken the core engine. docmd includes a brutal integration testing suite that verifies HTML generation, path resolutions, and SPA configurations.

To run the test suite:

pnpm test

If the test passes and outputs ✨ ALL SYSTEMS GO, your code is safe to commit!

Pull Request Guidelines

Create a Branch: Always branch off of main for your work (e.g., feat/new-search-ui or fix/broken-link).
Write Clean Code: Follow the existing coding style. If you are creating a new file in the packages/ directory, ensure it includes the standard docmd copyright header at the top.
Commit Messages: We prefer Conventional Commits (e.g., feat: add new button container or fix: resolve sidebar scroll issue).
Open a PR: Push your branch to your fork and open a Pull Request against our main branch. Provide a clear summary of your changes and reference any related issues.

Copyright Header

All source files in packages/ must include the standard copyright header. If you create a new file, please copy the header from an existing file.

/*!
 * --------------------------------------------------------------------
 * docmd : the minimalist, zero-config documentation generator.
 *
 * @package     @docmd/core (and ecosystem)
 * @website     https://docmd.io
 * @repository  https://github.com/docmd-io/docmd
 * @license     MIT
 * @copyright   Copyright (c) 2025 docmd.io
 *
 * [docmd-source] - Please do not remove this header.
 * --------------------------------------------------------------------
 */

Code of Conduct

Please note that this project operates with a standard Contributor Code of Conduct. By participating in this project you agree to abide by its terms, ensuring a welcoming and respectful environment for everyone.