# Contributing

First, thank you for contributing to MeiliSearch! The goal of this document is to provide everything you need to start contributing to MeiliSearch.

- [Assumptions](#assumptions)
- [How to Contribute](#how-to-contribute)
- [Development Workflow](#development-workflow)
- [Git Guidelines](#git-guidelines)

## Assumptions

1. **You're familiar with [Github](https://github.com) and the [Pull Requests](https://help.github.com/en/github/collaborating-with-issues-and-pull-requests/about-pull-requests)(PR) workflow.**
2. **You've read the MeiliSearch [documentation](https://docs.meilisearch.com).**
3. **You know about the [MeiliSearch community](https://docs.meilisearch.com/learn/what_is_meilisearch/contact.html).
   Please use this for help.**

## How to Contribute

1. Ensure your change has an issue! Find an
   [existing issue](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch/issues/) or [open a new issue](https://github.com/meilisearch/meilisearch/issues/new).
   * This is where you can get a feel if the change will be accepted or not.
2. Once approved, [fork the MeiliSearch repository](https://help.github.com/en/github/getting-started-with-github/fork-a-repo) in your own Github account.
3. [Create a new Git branch](https://help.github.com/en/github/collaborating-with-issues-and-pull-requests/creating-and-deleting-branches-within-your-repository)
4. Review the [Development Workflow](#development-workflow) section that describes the steps to maintain the repository.
5. Make your changes on your branch.
6. [Submit the branch as a Pull Request](https://help.github.com/en/github/collaborating-with-issues-and-pull-requests/creating-a-pull-request-from-a-fork) pointing to the `main` branch of the main MeiliSearch repository. A maintainer should comment and/or review your Pull Request within a few days. Although depending on the circumstances, it may take longer.

## Development Workflow

### Setup and run MeiliSearch

```bash
cargo run
```

We recommend using the `--release` flag to test the full performance of MeiliSearch.

### Test

```bash
cargo test
```

If you get a "Too many open files" error you might want to increase the open file limit using this command:

```bash
ulimit -Sn 3000
```

## Git Guidelines

### Git Branches

All changes must be made in a branch and submitted as PR.

We do not enforce any branch naming style, but please use something descriptive of your changes.

### Git Commits

As minimal requirements, your commit message should:
- be capitalized
- not finish by a dot or any other punctuation character (!,?)
- start with a verb so that we can read your commit message this way: "This commit will ...", where "..." is the commit message.
  e.g.: "Fix the home page button" or "Add more tests for create_index method"

We don't follow any other convention, but if you want to use one, we recommend [this one](https://chris.beams.io/posts/git-commit/).

### Github Pull Requests

Some notes on GitHub PRs:

- All PRs must be reviewed and approved by at least one maintainer.
- The PR title should be accurate and descriptive of the changes.
- [Convert your PR as a draft](https://help.github.com/en/github/collaborating-with-issues-and-pull-requests/changing-the-stage-of-a-pull-request) if your changes are a work in progress: no one will review it until you pass your PR as ready for review.<br>
  The draft PRs are recommended when you want to show that you are working on something and make your work visible.
- The branch related to the PR must be **up-to-date with `main`** before merging. Fortunately, this project uses [Bors](https://github.com/bors-ng/bors-ng) to automatically enforce this requirement without the PR author having to rebase manually.

<hr>

Thank you again for reading this through, we can not wait to begin to work with you if you made your way through this contributing guide ❤️