Contributing to CDTS

We welcome contributions from the community. Whether you are fixing bugs, improving documentation, or adding new features, your help is appreciated.

Development Setup

To start contributing to the CDTS codebase, you will need to set up a local development environment.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.9+
• A C++ Compiler (GCC, Clang, or MSVC) for the core engine.

Setup Instructions

1. Fork and Clone: Fork the repository on GitHub and clone your fork locally.

   git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/cdts.git
   cd cdts
   

2. Install in Editable Mode with Dev Dependencies: Install the package so that changes to the Python code are immediately reflected without needing to reinstall.

   pip install -e .[dev]
   

   Note: Any changes made to the C++ source files (src/*.cpp) will require you to re-run the pip install -e . command to trigger a recompilation.

Testing

We use pytest for running our test suite. Ensure that all tests pass before submitting a pull request.

To run the tests with coverage reporting, execute:

pytest --cov=cdts tests/

Building the Docs Locally

Documentation lives under docs/ and is built with MkDocs Material. To preview your changes before opening a pull request:

pip install mkdocs-material
mkdocs serve

This starts a local server (by default at http://127.0.0.1:8000) that live-reloads as you edit any .md file or mkdocs.yml. Before opening a PR, also run mkdocs build --strict once — it fails on broken internal links and navigation errors that a plain mkdocs build (what CI runs) only logs as warnings.

Pull Request Process

1. Create a new branch for your feature or bug fix.
2. Ensure your code follows professional Python standards.
3. Add tests for any new functionality in the tests/ directory.
4. Update documentation if necessary.
5. Submit a pull request on GitHub, clearly describing the changes and referencing any related issues.