Contributing

Wave VM is a small project with a deliberately narrow scope. Changes should make the current milestone more reliable or more honest, not expand the product surface without a working implementation.

Engineering expectations

• Inspect the relevant existing code before changing it.
• Keep the Rust backend authoritative for host, configuration, filesystem, and virtualization state.
• Use narrowly scoped Tauri commands and typed Rust structures.
• Construct process arguments as vectors, never shell command strings.
• Do not add Electron, React, Next.js, or Tailwind to the desktop application.
• Do not make libvirt a mandatory dependency.
• Do not add automated tests or scenario harnesses unless the maintainer asks.
• Do not commit generated build artifacts, local credentials, or secrets.
• Do not perform destructive Git operations or overwrite user data.

Before a change

• Check the current repository status and preserve unrelated work.
• Explain significant architectural decisions and trade-offs.
• Keep the change scoped to the requested milestone.
• Run the relevant formatting, compilation, type-check, or build commands.

After a change

• Report which checks actually ran and their results.
• Distinguish implementation failures from missing host dependencies.
• Document limitations and anything the user still needs to test or configure.
• Do not claim a VM lifecycle or console works without verified evidence.

Discuss first

There is no separate contributor license agreement and no formal review process. Open an issue in the relevant repository to discuss a bug or proposal before investing in a large change.

Desktop issues · Website issues · Desktop engineering rules

See Build and checks for the command sequence.