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Contributing

Contributions to Task are very welcome, but we ask that you read this document before submitting a PR.

Before you start​

  • Check existing work - Is there an existing PR? Are there issues discussing the feature/change you want to make? Please make sure you consider/address these discussions in your work.
  • Backwards compatibility - Will your change break existing Taskfiles? It is much more likely that your change will merged if it backwards compatible. Is there an approach you can take that maintains this compatibility? If not, consider opening an issue first so that API changes can be discussed before you invest you time into a PR.

1. Setup​

  • Go - Task is written in Go. We always support the latest two major Go versions, so make sure your version is recent enough.
  • Node.js - Node.js is used to host Task's documentation server and is required if you want to run this server locally.
  • Yarn - Yarn is the Node.js package manager used by Task.

2. Making changes​

  • Code style - Try to maintain the existing code style where possible and ensure that code is formatted by gofmt. We use golangci-lint in our CI to enforce a consistent style and best-practise. There's a lint command in the Taskfile to run this locally.
  • Documentation - Ensure that you add/update any relevant documentation. See the updating documentation section below.
  • Tests - Ensure that you add/update any relevant tests and that all tests are passing before submitting the PR. See the writing tests section below.

Running your changes​

To run Task with working changes, you can use go run ./cmd/task. To run a development build of task against a test Taskfile in testdata, you can use go run ./cmd/task --dir ./testdata/<my_test_dir> <task_name>.

Updating documentation​

Task uses Docusaurus to host a documentation server. This can be setup and run locally by using task docs:setup and task docs:start respectively (requires nodejs & yarn). All content is written in Markdown and is located in the docs/docs directory. All Markdown documents should have an 80 character line wrap limit.

When making a change, consider whether a change to the Usage Guide is necessary. This document contains descriptions and examples of how to use Task features. If you're adding a new feature, try to find an appropriate place to add a new section. If you're updating an existing feature, ensure that the documentation and any examples are up-to-date. Ensure that any examples follow the Taskfile Styleguide.

If you added a new field, command or flag, ensure that you add it to the API Reference. New fields also need to be added to the JSON Schema. The descriptions for fields in the API reference and the schema should match.

Writing tests​

Most of Task's test are held in the task_test.go file in the project root and this is where you'll most likely want to add new ones too. Most of these tests also have a subdirectory in the testdata directory where any Taskfiles/data required to run the tests are stored.

When making a changes, consider whether new tests are required. These tests should ensure that the functionality you are adding will continue to work in the future. Existing tests may also need updating if you have changed Task's behaviour.

3. Committing your code​

Try to write meaningful commit messages and avoid having too many commits on the PR. Most PRs should likely have a single commit (although for bigger PRs it may be reasonable to split it in a few). Git squash and rebase is your friend!

4. Submitting a PR​

  • Describe your changes - Ensure that you provide a comprehensive description of your changes.
  • Issue/PR links - Link any previous work such as related issues or PRs. Please describe how your changes differ to/extend this work.
  • Examples - Add any examples that you think are useful to demonstrate the effect of your changes.
  • Draft PRs - If your changes are incomplete, but you would like to discuss them, open the PR as a draft and add a comment to start a discussion. Using comments rather than the PR description allows the description to be updated later while preserving any discussions.

FAQ​

I want to contribute, where do I start?

Take a look at the list of open issues. We have a good first issue label for simpler issues that are ideal for first time contributions.

All kinds of contributions are welcome, whether its a typo fix or a shiny new feature. You can also contribute by upvoting/commenting on issues, helping to answer questions or contributing to other community projects.

I'm stuck, where can I get help?

If you have questions, feel free to ask them in the #help channel on our Discord server.