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Contributing Guidelines

Dependencies

This project uses Zensical to build and serve the documentation site. Set up a dedicated Python virtual environment to keep things isolated:

python -m venv ~/.venvs/zensical
source ~/.venvs/zensical/bin/activate
pip install zensical

Running Zensical

Once installed, either activate the venv or run the binary directly:

# Option 1: Activate the venv
source ~/.venvs/zensical/bin/activate
zensical serve

# Option 2: Run directly without activating
~/.venvs/zensical/bin/zensical serve

Common commands:

  • zensical serve — live preview with hot-reload
  • zensical build --clean — production build
  • Review build output for broken link warnings

Adding New Pages

  1. Create the markdown file in docs/
  2. Add the page to the nav section in zensical.toml
  3. Create corresponding code examples in all three languages under examples/
  4. Test locally with zensical serve

Vendored dependencies

The Zensical theme lazy-loads a few third-party assets (Mermaid for diagrams, GLightbox for image zoom) from unpkg.com by default.

For the Content Security Policy on docs.aws.amazon.com, we self-host pinned copies under docs/assets/. Each vendored asset exposes a window.* global (window.mermaid, window.GLightbox) that the theme's lazy-loaders check before hitting the CDN, so preloading our local copy short-circuits the unpkg fetch.

Mermaid

docs/assets/javascripts/mermaid.tiny.js is a pinned copy of the @mermaid-js/tiny UMD build. The tiny build supports flowcharts and sequence, state, class, and entity-relationship diagrams. It does not support mindmap or architecture diagrams, or KaTeX math rendering.

Upgrade procedure:

# 1. Show the pinned version and the latest on npm
python3 scripts/vendor_mermaid.py --latest

# 2. Edit scripts/vendor_mermaid.toml. Bump `version`. Run the script.
#    It will fail and print the new SHA-256. Paste that value into `sha256`
#    in the TOML, then run the script again.
python3 scripts/vendor_mermaid.py

# 3. Preview locally and spot-check pages with diagrams.
zensical serve

# 4. Commit scripts/vendor_mermaid.toml and docs/assets/javascripts/mermaid.tiny.js
#    together in the same commit.

GLightbox

docs/assets/javascripts/glightbox.min.js and docs/assets/stylesheets/glightbox.min.css are pinned copies of the glightbox npm package. Zensical's GLightbox Markdown extension wraps images in <a class="glightbox"> and, when a user opens one, calls a lazy-loader that pulls the JS and CSS from unpkg unless window.GLightbox is already defined. We register the vendored copies via extra_javascript and extra_css in zensical.toml so the lazy-loader short-circuits and no unpkg request is made.

Upgrade procedure:

# 1. Show the pinned version and the latest on npm
python3 scripts/vendor_glightbox.py --latest

# 2. Edit scripts/vendor_glightbox.toml. Bump `version`. Run the script.
#    It will fail and print the new SHA-256s for both files. Paste those
#    values into `sha256_js` and `sha256_css` in the TOML, then re-run.
python3 scripts/vendor_glightbox.py

# 3. Preview locally and open a page with an image. Click the image: the
#    lightbox should open and DevTools Network should show no unpkg.com
#    requests.
zensical serve

# 4. Commit scripts/vendor_glightbox.toml together with
#    docs/assets/javascripts/glightbox.min.js and
#    docs/assets/stylesheets/glightbox.min.css.

CI verifies the committed files match the pinned SHA-256 values for both Mermaid and GLightbox. If you hand-edit a vendored file or forget to update the SHA on upgrade, the build fails.

Directory convention

Vendored third-party assets live under docs/assets/ and are owned by the scripts under scripts/:

  • docs/assets/javascripts/ holds vendored JS (mermaid.tiny.js, glightbox.min.js).
  • docs/assets/stylesheets/ holds vendored CSS alongside our own extra.css. The vendored glightbox.min.css lives here.

Treat all vendored files as read-only outputs of the vendoring scripts. Do not hand-edit them. Upgrade by bumping the version pin in the corresponding script's TOML and re-running the script. Vendored files are marked binary in .gitattributes so PR diffs do not try to render minified code.

First-party scripts we author and maintain live under docs/javascripts/, for example mermaid-init.js, which initializes the vendored Mermaid build. Both docs/assets/javascripts/ and docs/javascripts/ are served from the same origin and register through extra_javascript in zensical.toml.

Formatting

Run mdformat to auto-format Markdown files before committing:

# single file
mdformat docs/index.md

# all docs
mdformat docs/

Authoring

The copy is written in Markdown and rendered by Zensical. Please see the authoring-guide for samples on how to create code-blocks, examples, info boxes and other formatting features.

Edit documentation in the markdown files under docs/.

Adding Code Sample Blocks

Embed code samples in documentation pages with the --8<-- snippet syntax with content tabs for multi-language support.

IMPORTANT: All code examples MUST include all three languages (Python, TypeScript, Java) and remain functionally equivalent across languages. The tab order must always be TypeScript → Python → Java.

Steps to add a new code sample:

  1. Create example files under examples/ following the page folder hierarchy
  2. Use identical names with hyphens across all languages (e.g., retry-with-backoff.{py,ts,java})
  3. Organize by language: examples/{language}/{section}/{subsection}/{example-name}.{ext}
  4. Ensure all three language versions demonstrate the same functionality
  5. Reference the examples in your documentation using content tabs:
=== "TypeScript"

    ```typescript
    --8<-- "examples/typescript/core/steps/basic-step.ts"
    ```

=== "Python"

    ```python
    --8<-- "examples/python/core/steps/basic-step.py"
    ```

=== "Java"

    ```java
    --8<-- "examples/java/core/steps/basic-step.java"
    ```

Example structure:

examples/
├── typescript/
│   ├── getting-started/
│   │   └── minimal-example.ts
│   ├── core/
│   │   ├── steps/
│   │   │   └── basic-step.ts
│   │   └── parallel/
│   │       └── parallel-execution.ts
│   └── advanced/
│       └── error-handling/
│           └── retry-with-backoff.ts
├── python/
│   ├── getting-started/
│   │   └── minimal-example.py
│   ├── core/
│   │   ├── steps/
│   │   │   └── basic-step.py
│   │   └── parallel/
│   │       └── parallel-execution.py
│   └── advanced/
│       └── error-handling/
│           └── retry-with-backoff.py
└── java/
    ├── getting-started/
    │   └── minimal-example.java
    ├── core/
    │   ├── steps/
    │   │   └── basic-step.java
    │   └── parallel/
    │       └── parallel-execution.java
    └── advanced/
        └── error-handling/
            └── retry-with-backoff.java

This approach keeps code samples maintainable, testable, and consistent across all languages.

Commit Messages

Use Conventional Commits format:

<type>(<scope>): <subject>

<body>
  • type and scope are optional
  • Subject line must be 50 characters or less
  • Use lowercase for type and scope
  • Use imperative mood in the subject ("add" not "added" or "adds")
  • No period at the end of the subject line
  • Wrap body text at 72 characters
  • Use the body to explain what changed and why, with bullet points when helpful

Common types: feat, fix, docs, style, refactor, test, chore

Example:

add custom serdes examples

- Add TypeScript, Python, and Java examples for custom
  serialization
- Include encryption-at-rest pattern for sensitive data
- Update serialization doc page with snippet references

Developer Workflow

  1. Create a feature branch and edit the Markdown files under docs/ (and corresponding code samples under examples/).
  2. Preview your changes locally by running zensical serve and opening the local URL it prints.
  3. Once you're happy with the result, commit your changes and open a pull request against the main branch.

Reporting Bugs/Feature Requests

We welcome you to use the GitHub issue tracker to report bugs or suggest features.

When filing an issue, please check existing open, or recently closed, issues to make sure somebody else hasn't already reported the issue. Please try to include as much information as you can. Details like these are incredibly useful:

  • A reproducible test case or series of steps
  • The version of our code being used
  • Any modifications you've made relevant to the bug
  • Anything unusual about your environment or deployment

Contributing via Pull Requests

Contributions via pull requests are much appreciated. Before sending us a pull request, please ensure that:

  1. You are working against the latest source on the main branch.
  2. You check existing open, and recently merged, pull requests to make sure someone else hasn't addressed the problem already.
  3. You open an issue to discuss any significant work - we would hate for your time to be wasted.

To send us a pull request, please:

  1. Fork the repository.
  2. Modify the source; please focus on the specific change you are contributing. If you also reformat all the code, it will be hard for us to focus on your change.
  3. Ensure local tests pass.
  4. Commit to your fork using clear commit messages.
  5. Send us a pull request, answering any default questions in the pull request interface.
  6. Pay attention to any automated CI failures reported in the pull request, and stay involved in the conversation.

GitHub provides additional document on forking a repository and creating a pull request.

Finding contributions to work on

Looking at the existing issues is a great way to find something to contribute on. As our projects, by default, use the default GitHub issue labels (enhancement/bug/duplicate/help wanted/invalid/question/wontfix), looking at any 'help wanted' issues is a great place to start.

Code of Conduct

This project has adopted the Amazon Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact opensource-codeofconduct@amazon.com with any additional questions or comments.

Security issue notifications

If you discover a potential security issue in this project we ask that you notify AWS/Amazon Security via our vulnerability reporting page. Please do not create a public github issue.

Licensing

See the LICENSE file for our project's licensing. We will ask you to confirm the licensing of your contribution.