DART Contribution Workflow

Load this skill when contributing code to DART.

Full Documentation

For complete guide: docs/onboarding/contributing.md

For code style: docs/onboarding/code-style.md

Branch Naming

• feature/<topic>

• New features

• fix/<topic>

• Bug fixes

• refactor/<topic>

• Refactoring

• docs/<topic>

• Documentation

PR Workflow

Create branch

git checkout -b <type>/<topic> origin/main

Make changes, then

pixi run lint pixi run test-all

Push and create PR

git push -u origin HEAD gh pr create --draft --milestone "DART 7.0"

Rule of thumb: run pixi run lint before committing so auto-fixes are included.

Use .github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md and ensure the PR description covers Summary, Motivation, Changes, Testing, Breaking Changes, and Related Issues.

Milestones (Required)

Always set a milestone when creating PRs:

Target Branch Milestone

main

DART 7.0 (or next major)

release-6.16

DART 6.16.x (current patch)

Set milestone on existing PR

gh pr edit <PR#> --milestone "DART 7.0"

List available milestones

gh api repos/dartsim/dart/milestones --jq '.[] | .title'

CRITICAL: Bug Fix Dual-PR

Bug fixes require PRs to BOTH branches:

• release-6.16

• Current release

• main

• Next release

Steps:

• Fix on release-6.16 first

• Cherry-pick to main

• Create separate PRs for each

CHANGELOG (After PR Created)

After creating a PR, check if CHANGELOG.md needs updating:

Change Type Update CHANGELOG?

Bug fixes ✅ Yes

New features ✅ Yes

Breaking changes ✅ Yes (in Breaking Changes section)

Documentation improvements ✅ Yes (in Tooling and Docs)

CI/tooling changes ✅ Yes (in Tooling and Docs)

Refactoring (no behavior change) ⚠️ Maybe (if significant)

Dependency bumps ⚠️ Maybe (if user-facing)

Typo fixes ❌ No

Format: - Description. (#PR)

Example entry in CHANGELOG.md under appropriate section:

• Added AI-native documentation with AGENTS.md and module-specific guides. (#2446)

Code Review

• Address all feedback

• Keep changes minimal

• Update tests if behavior changed

• Run full validation before pushing fixes

CI Loop

gh run watch <RUN_ID> --interval 30

Fix failures until green.