CONTRIBUTING.md

Contributing

Reporting issues

Open a GitHub issue. Please include:

• Output of ws doctor
• Output of ws --version
• OS and ROS distro (echo $ROS_DISTRO)
• The exact command you ran and the full output

Making changes

1. Fork the repository and create a branch.
2. Make your changes — see the repository layout for where things live.
3. Validate your changes:

   make install
   source ~/.bashrc
   ws doctor
   ws build --help
   ws cd --help

4. Open a pull request with a description of what changed and why.

Code style

• All scripts: #!/usr/bin/env bash + set -euo pipefail.
• Shared helpers go in lib/ws_lib.sh (sourced, not executed — no set -euo pipefail at top level).
• New subcommands: add a script in bin/, register it in install.sh (COMMAND_NAMES / COMMANDS), and add a dispatch case in bin/ws_manager.sh.
• Completion: update __ws_complete_dispatch in completion/ws_manager.bash.
• Keep user-visible strings consistent with existing messages (lowercase, no trailing period on errors).

Release process

1. Update VERSION and CHANGELOG.md.
2. Tag: git tag -a v$(cat VERSION) -m "Release $(cat VERSION)".
3. Push tag.