# How to contribute efficiently

Sections covered in this file:

* [Reporting bugs or proposing features](#reporting-bugs-or-proposing-features)
* [Contributing pull requests](#contributing-pull-requests)
* [Contributing to Godot's translation](#contributing-to-godots-translation)
* [Communicating with developers](#communicating-with-developers)

**Please read the first section before reporting a bug!**

## Reporting bugs or proposing features

The golden rule is to **always open *one* issue for *one* bug**. If you notice
several bugs and want to report them, make sure to create one new issue for
each of them.

Everything referred to hereafter as "bug" also applies for feature requests.

If you are reporting a new issue, you will make our life much simpler (and the
fix come much sooner) by following these guidelines:

#### Search first in the existing database

Issues are often reported several times by various users. It's a good practice
to **search first** in the issues database before reporting your issue. If you
don't find a relevant match or if you are unsure, don't hesitate to **open a
new issue**. The bugsquad will handle it from there if it's a duplicate.

#### Specify the platform

Godot runs on a large variety of platforms and operating systems and devices.
If you believe your issue is device/platform dependent (for example if it is
related to the rendering, crashes or compilation errors), please specify:
* Operating system
* Device (including architecture, e.g. x86, x86_64, arm, etc.)
* GPU model (and driver in use if you know it)

#### Specify steps to reproduce

Many bugs can't be reproduced unless specific steps are taken. Please **specify
the exact steps** that must be taken to reproduce the condition, and try to
keep them as minimal as possible.

#### Provide a simple, example project

Sometimes an unexpected behavior happens in your project. In such case,
understand that:
* What happens to you may not happen to other users.
* We can't take the time to look at your project, understand how it is set up
  and then figure out why it's failing.

To speed up our work, please prepare for us **a simple project** that isolates
and reproduces the issue. This is always the **best way for us to fix it**.
You can attach a zip file with the minimal project directly to the bug report,
by drag and dropping the file in the GitHub edition field.

## Contributing pull requests

If you want to add new engine functionalities, please make sure that:

* This functionality is desired, which means that it solves a common use case
  that several users will need in their real-life projects.
* You talked to other developers on how to implement it best (on either
  communication channel, and maybe in a GitHub issue first before making your
  PR).
* Even if it does not get merged, your PR is useful for future work by another
  developer.

Similar rules can be applied when contributing bug fixes - it's always best to
discuss the implementation in the bug report first if you are not 100% about
what would be the best fix.

[This blog post](https://godotengine.org/article/will-your-contribution-be-merged-heres-how-tell)
outlines the process used by core developers when assessing PRs. We strongly
recommend that you have a look at it to know what's important to take into
account for a PR to be considered for merging.

In addition to the following tips, also take a look at the
[Engine development guide](https://docs.godotengine.org/en/latest/development/cpp/)
for an introduction to developing on Godot.

The [Contributing docs](http://docs.godotengine.org/en/latest/community/contributing/index.html)
also have important information on the PR workflow and the code style we use.

#### Be nice to the git history

Try to make simple PRs that handle one specific topic. Just like for reporting
issues, it's better to open 3 different PRs that each address a different issue
than one big PR with three commits.

When updating your fork with upstream changes, please use ``git pull --rebase``
to avoid creating "merge commits". Those commits unnecessarily pollute the git
history when coming from PRs.

Also try to make commits that bring the engine from one stable state to another
stable state, i.e. if your first commit has a bug that you fixed in the second
commit, try to merge them together before making your pull request (see ``git
rebase -i`` and relevant help about rebasing or amending commits on the
Internet).

This git style guide has some good practices to have in mind:
[Git Style Guide](https://github.com/agis-/git-style-guide)

See our [PR workflow](http://docs.godotengine.org/en/latest/community/contributing/pr_workflow.html)
documentation for tips on using Git, amending commits and rebasing branches.

#### Format your commit logs with readability in mind

The way you format your commit logs is quite important to ensure that the
commit history and changelog will be easy to read and understand. A git commit
log is formatted as a short title (first line) and an extended description
(everything after the first line and an empty separation line).

The short title is the most important part, as it is what will appear in the
`shortlog` changelog (one line per commit, so no description shown) or in the
GitHub interface unless you click the "expand" button. As the name tells it,
try to keep that first line relatively short (ideally <= 50 chars, though it's
rare to be able to tell enough in so few characters, so you can go a bit
higher) - it should describe what the commit does globally, while details would
go in the description. Typically, if you can't keep the title short because you
have too much stuff to mention, it means that you should probably split your
changes in several commits :)

Here's an example of a well-formatted commit log (note how the extended
description is also manually wrapped at 80 chars for readability):

```
Prevent French fries carbonization by fixing heat regulation

When using the French fries frying module, Godot would not regulate the heat
and thus bring the oil bath to supercritical liquid conditions, thus causing
unwanted side effects in the physics engine.

By fixing the regulation system via an added binding to the internal feature,
this commit now ensures that Godot will not go past the ebullition temperature
of cooking oil under normal atmospheric conditions.

Fixes #1789, long live the Realm!
```

*Note:* When using the GitHub online editor (or worse, the drag and drop
feature), *please* edit the commit title to something meaningful. Commits named
"Update my_file.cpp" will not be accepted.

## Contributing to Godot's translation

You can contribute to Godot's translation from the [Hosted
Weblate](https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/godot-engine/godot), an open
source and web-based translation platform. Please refer to the [translation
readme](editor/translations/README.md) for more information.

You can also help translate [Godot's
documentation](https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/godot-engine/godot-docs/)
on Weblate.

## Communicating with developers

The Godot Engine community has [many communication
channels](https://godotengine.org/community), some used more for user-level
discussions and support, others more for development discussions.

To communicate with developers (e.g. to discuss a feature you want to implement
or a bug you want to fix), the following channels can be used:
- [GitHub issues](https://github.com/godotengine/godot/issues): If there is an
  existing issue about a topic you want to discuss, just add a comment to it -
  all developers watch the repository and will get an email notification. You
  can also create a new issue - please keep in mind to create issues only to
  discuss quite specific points about the development, and not general user
  feedback or support requests.
- [#godotengine-devel IRC channel on
  Freenode](https://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=godotengine-devel): You will
  find most core developers there, so it's the go-to channel for direct chat
  about Godot Engine development. Feel free to start discussing something there
  to get some early feedback before writing up a detailed proposal in a GitHub
  issue.
- [devel@godotengine.org mailing
  list](https://listengine.tuxfamily.org/godotengine.org/devel/): Mailing list
  for Godot developers, used primarily to announce developer meetings on IRC
  and other important discussions that need to reach people directly in their
  mailbox. See the [index
  page](https://listengine.tuxfamily.org/godotengine.org/devel/) for
  subscription instructions.

Thanks!

The Godot development team
