Contributing

We welcome contributions to lisa-gap! Whether you’re reporting bugs, suggesting features, improving documentation, or contributing code, your help is appreciated.

Getting Started

If you’re interested in contributing, here are several ways you can help:

Reporting Issues

Found a bug or have a feature request? Please check if it already exists in our issue tracker and create a new issue if needed.

When reporting bugs, please include:

Your operating system and Python version
lisa-gap version
A minimal code example that reproduces the issue
The full error message or unexpected behavior

Suggesting Features

We’re always interested in new ideas! Open an issue with the “enhancement” label and describe:

What you’d like to see
Why it would be useful
How you envision it working

Contributing Code

If you’d like to contribute code, here’s how to get started:

Setting Up Development Environment

Fork the repository on GitHub

Clone your fork locally:

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/lisa-gap.git
cd lisa-gap

Install in development mode:
```
pip install -e ".[dev]"
```
Create a new branch for your work:
```
git checkout -b feature-name
```

Making Changes

Write clear, documented code
Add tests for new functionality
Ensure existing tests still pass
Follow the existing code style
Update documentation as needed

Testing

Run the test suite to ensure your changes don’t break existing functionality:

uv run pytest tests/

Submitting Changes

Commit your changes with a clear commit message
Push to your fork on GitHub
Open a pull request against the main repository

Pull Request Guidelines

Provide a clear description of what your changes do
Reference any related issues
Include tests for new functionality
Ensure all tests pass
Update documentation if needed

Documentation

Documentation improvements are always welcome! You can:

Fix typos or unclear explanations
Add examples or tutorials
Improve API documentation
Translate documentation (future feature)

To build documentation locally if using uv:

cd docs
uv run make clean
uv run make html

Questions?

If you have questions about contributing, feel free to:

Open an issue for discussion
Reach out to the maintainers
Start a discussion on GitHub
email Ollie Burke directly – ollie.burke@glasgow.ac.uk

Happy coding!