We would 
for you to contribute to SurrealDB and help make it better! We want contributing to SurrealDB to be fun, enjoyable, and educational for anyone and everyone. All contributions are welcome, including features, bugfixes, and documentation changes, as well as updates and tweaks, blog posts, workshops, and everything else.
If you are worried or don’t know where to start, check out our next section explaining what kind of help we could use and where can you get involved. You can ask us a question on GitHub Discussions, or on the SurrealDB Discord Server. Alternatively, you can message us on any channel in the SurrealDB Community!
Help us keep SurrealDB open and inclusive. Please read and follow our Code of Conduct.
We aim to develop according to coding standards in-line with each programming language. We suggest you go through the prerequisite reading section below before proceeding with a contribution!
We would for you to contribute to SurrealDB, but we would also like to make sure SurrealDB is as great as possible and loyal to its vision and mission statement. For us to find the right balance, please open a question on GitHub discussions with any ideas before introducing a new pull request. This will allow the SurrealDB community to have sufficient discussion about the new feature value and how it fits in the product roadmap and vision.
The branch name is your first opportunity to give your task context. Branch naming convention is as follows
TYPE-ISSUE_ID-DESCRIPTION
It is recommended to combine the relevant GitHub issue with a short description that describes the task resolved in this branch. If you don't have GitHub issue for your PR, then you may avoid the prefix, but keep in mind that more likely you have to create the issue first. For example:
bugfix-548-ensure-queries-execute-sequentially
Where TYPE can be one of the following:
- refactor - code change that neither fixes a bug nor adds a feature
- feature - code changes that add a new feature
- bugfix - code changes that fix a bug
- docs - documentation only changes
Write a descriptive summary: The first line of your commit message should be a concise summary of the changes you are making. It should be no more than 50 characters and should describe the change in a way that is easy to understand.
Provide more details in the body: The body of the commit message should provide more details about the changes you are making. Explain the problem you are solving, the changes you are making, and the reasoning behind those changes.
Use the commit history in your favor: Small and self-contained commits allow the reviewer to see exactly how you solved the problem. By reading the commit history of the PR, the reviewer can already understand what they'll be reviewing, even before seeing a single line of code.
The title of your pull request should be clear and descriptive. It should summarize the changes you are making in a concise manner.
Provide a detailed description of the changes you are making. Explain the reasoning behind the changes, the problem it solves, and the impact it may have on the codebase. Keep in mind that a reviewer was not working on your task, so you should explain why you wrote the code the way you did.
Describe the scene and provide everything that will help to understand background and a context for the reviewers by adding related GitHub issues to the description, links to the related PRs, project or third-party documentation. If there are any potential drawbacks or trade-offs to your changes, be sure to mention them too.
Be sure to request reviews from the appropriate people. This might include the project maintainers, other contributors, or anyone else who is familiar with the codebase and can provide valuable feedback. You can also join our Weekly Developer Office Hours to chat with the maintainers who will review your code!
Draft pull requests allow you to create a pull request that is still a work in progress and not ready for review. This is useful when you want to share your changes with others but aren't quite ready to merge them or request immediate feedback.
https://github.blog/2019-02-14-introducing-draft-pull-requests/
Once your pull request has been reviewed, be sure to respond to any feedback you receive. This might involve making additional changes to your code, addressing questions or concerns, or simply thanking reviewers for their feedback.
By using the re-request review feature, you can prompt the reviewer to take another look at your changes and provide feedback if necessary.
We are actively using threads to allow for more detailed and targeted discussions about specific parts of the pull request. Resolved thread means that the conversation has been addressed and the issue has been resolved. Reviewers are responsible for resolving the comment and not the author. The author can simply add a reply comment that the change has been done or decline a request.
When your pull request is approved, our team will be sure to merge it responsibly. This might involve running additional tests or checks, ensuring that the codebase is still functional.
To summarize, fork the project and use git clone command to download the repository to your computer. A standard procedure for working on an issue would be to:
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Clone the repository and download to your computer.
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Pull all changes from the upstream
mainbranch, before creating a new branch - to ensure that yourmainbranch is up-to-date with the latest changes. -
Create new branch from
mainlike:bugfix-548-ensure-queries-execute-sequentially. -
Make changes to the code, and ensure all code changes are formatted correctly.
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Commit your changes when finished,
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Push changes to GitHub.
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Submit your changes for review, by going to your repository on GitHub and clicking the
Compare & pull requestbutton. -
Ensure that you have entered a commit message which details the changes, and what the pull request is for.
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Now submit the pull request by clicking the
Create pull requestbutton. -
Wait for code review and approval.
We take the security of SurrealDB code, software, cloud platform, and client SDKs very seriously. If you believe you have found a security vulnerability in SurrealDB, we encourage you to let us know right away. We will investigate all legitimate reports and do our best to quickly fix the problem.
Please report any issues or vulnerabilities to security@surrealdb.com, instead of posting a public issue in GitHub. Please include the SurrealDB version identifier, by running surreal version on the command-line, and details on how the vulnerability can be exploited.
When developing, make sure to follow the best industry standards and practices.
Pull requests are great, but there are many other areas where you can help.
Blogging, speaking about, or creating tutorials about one of SurrealDB's many features. Mention @surrealdb on Twitter, and email community@surrealdb.com so we can give pointers and tips and help you spread the word by promoting your content on the different SurrealDB communication channels. Please add your blog posts and videos of talks to our showcase repo on GitHub.
Presenting at meetups and conferences about your SurrealDB projects. Your unique challenges and successes in building things with SurrealDB can provide great speaking material. We’d love to review your talk abstract, so get in touch with us at community@surrealdb.com if you’d like some help!
Sending feedback is a great way for us to understand your different use cases of SurrealDB better. If you want to share your experience with SurrealDB, or if you want to discuss any ideas, you can start a discussion on GitHub discussions, chat with the SurrealDB team on Discord, or you can tweet @tobiemh or @surrealdb on Twitter. If you have any issues or have found a bug, then feel free to create an issue on GitHub issues.
Submitting documentation updates, enhancements, designs, or bug fixes, and fixing any spelling or grammar errors will be very much appreciated.
Join the growing SurrealDB Community around the world, for help, ideas, and discussions regarding SurrealDB.
- View our official Blog
- Follow us on Twitter
- Connect with us on LinkedIn
- Join our Dev community
- Chat live with us on Discord
- Get involved on Reddit
- Read our blog posts on Medium
- Questions tagged #surrealdb on StackOverflow