Contributing to NextViper

How to contribute code, write tests, improve standard library, and submit pull requests.

Contributing to NextViper

Thank you for your interest in contributing to NextViper! As an open-source programming language maintained by Nuratix LLC ([nuratix.com](https://nuratix.com)), NextViper thrives on community participation, bug reports, performance enhancements, and standard library extensions.

Code of Conduct

All contributors and maintainers are expected to foster a respectful, collaborative, and inclusive environment. Technical criticism must always be constructive and focused on code, architecture, and performance.

Development Setup & Building

2.1 Prerequisites

Compiler: GCC 11+ or Clang 13+ with full C++20 support

Build System: GNU Make (make) or CMake 3.20+

GPU Subsystem (Optional): Vulkan SDK headers and loader (libvulkan-dev or vulkan-headers)

Shell: Bash / POSIX-compatible shell

2.2 Quick Start

terminal

# 1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/nuratix/nextviper.git
cd nextviper

# 2. Build the toolchain (compiler + language server)
make -j$(nproc)

# 3. Run the full test suite
make test

# 4. Verify the CLI binary
./bin/nextviper --version

Contribution Workflow

mermaid

graph TD
    A[Fork & Clone Repo] --> B[Create Feature Branch]
    B --> C[Implement Code + Tests]
    C --> D[Run 'make test' Locally]
    D --> E[Submit Pull Request]
    E --> F[Automated CI & Validation]
    F --> G[Maintainer Code Review]
    G --> H[Merge to Main]
    H --> I[Official NextViper Release]

Fork the Repository: Create your personal fork on GitHub.

Create a Topic Branch: Use descriptive branch names (e.g. feat/stdlib-crypto, fix/lexer-unicode-escape).

Write Tests: Every bug fix or new feature must be accompanied by automated unit tests in tests/.

Adhere to Code Standards:

Write clean, modern, idiomatic C++20.

Use SourceSpan and DiagnosticEngine for user-facing errors.

Do not leak raw pointers; prefer RAII and smart pointers (std::shared_ptr, std::unique_ptr).

Submit a Pull Request: Provide a detailed description of your changes, motivation, and test coverage.

Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO)

NextViper uses the Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO) to ensure open-source licensing integrity. By submitting a pull request, you certify that you have the right to submit the code under the project's Apache License 2.0.

To sign your commits:

terminal

git commit -s -m "feat(stdlib): add base64 encoder functions"

Areas for Community Contributions

Standard Library Modules: Extending std.math, std.collections, std.fs, std.json, std.crypto.

GPU Kernel Optimizations: Optimizing compute shaders and matrix multiplication in src/gpu_kernels.cpp.

Developer Tooling & LSP: Enhancing Language Server features in src/lsp.cpp or the VS Code extension.

Documentation & Tutorials: Improving examples, guides, and error code explanations.

Package Ecosystem: Publishing reusable libraries on the NextViper Package Registry.

Security Vulnerabilities

Please do not open public GitHub issues for critical security vulnerabilities. Follow our responsible disclosure process outlined in [SECURITY.md](SECURITY.md) or email security@nuratix.com.