PocketMine-MP/CONTRIBUTING.md

Code contributions must be submitted using GitHub Pull Requests, where they will be reviewed by maintainers.

Small contributions (e.g. minor bug fixes) can be submitted as pull requests directly.

Larger contributions like feature additions should be preceded by a Change Proposal to allow maintainers and other people to discuss and decide if it's a good idea or not.

Useful documentation from github.com

• About pull requests
• About forks
• Creating a pull request from a fork

Other things you'll need

• git

List of pocketmine namespaces which are in other repos

PocketMine-MP has several dependencies which are independent from the main server code. Most of them use the pocketmine namespace. Some of these add extra classes to packages which already exist in PocketMine-MP.

Take a look at the table below if you can't find the class or function you're looking for.

Source URL	Namespace, class or function
pmmp/BedrockProtocol	pocketmine\network\mcpe\protocol
pmmp/BinaryUtils	pocketmine\utils\BinaryDataException pocketmine\utils\BinaryStream pocketmine\utils\Binary
pmmp/Color	pocketmine\color
pmmp/ErrorHandler	pocketmine\errorhandler
pmmp/Log	AttachableLogger BufferedLogger GlobalLogger LogLevel Logger PrefixedLogger SimpleLogger
pmmp/Math	pocketmine\math
pmmp/NBT	pocketmine\nbt
pmmp/RakLibIpc	raklib\server\ipc
pmmp/RakLib	raklib
pmmp/Snooze	pocketmine\snooze
pmmp/ext-chunkutils2	pocketmine\world\format\LightArray pocketmine\world\format\PalettedBlockArray pocketmine\world\format\io\SubChunkConverter
pmmp/ext-morton	morton2d_decode morton2d_encode morton3d_decode morton3d_encode
pmmp/ext-libdeflate	libdeflate_deflate_compress libdeflate_gzip_compress libdeflate_zlib_compress

Choosing a target branch

PocketMine-MP has three primary branches of development.

Type of change	stable	minor-next	major-next
Bug fixes	✔️	✔️	✔️
Improvements to API docs	✔️	✔️	✔️
Cleaning up code	❌	✔️	✔️
Changing code formatting or style	❌	✔️	✔️
Addition of new core features	❌	🟡 Only if non-disruptive	✔️
Changing core behaviour (e.g. making something use threads)	❌	✔️	✔️
Addition of new configuration options	❌	🟡 Only if optional	✔️
Addition of new API classes, methods or constants	❌	✔️	✔️
Deprecating API classes, methods or constants	❌	✔️	✔️
Adding optional parameters to an API method	❌	✔️	✔️
Changing API behaviour	❌	🟡 Only if backwards-compatible	✔️
Removal of API	❌	❌	✔️
Backwards-incompatible API change (e.g. renaming a method)	❌	❌	✔️
Backwards-incompatible internals change (e.g. changing things in pocketmine\network\mcpe)	❌	✔️	✔️

Notes

• Non-disruptive means that usage should not be significantly altered by the change.
  • Examples of non-disruptive changes include adding new commands, or gameplay features like blocks and items.
  • Examples of disruptive changes include changing the way the server is run, world format changes (since those require downtime for the user to convert their world).
• API includes all public and protected classes, functions and constants (unless marked as @internal).
  • Private members are not part of the API, unless in a trait.
  • The pocketmine\network\mcpe package is considered implicitly @internal in its entirety (see its README for more details).
• Minecraft's protocol changes are considered necessary internal changes, and are not subject to the same rules.
  • Protocol changes must always be released in a new minor version, since they disrupt user experience by requiring a client update.
• BC-breaking changes to the internal network API are allowed, but only in new minor versions. This ensures that plugins which use the internal network API will not break (though they shouldn't use such API anyway).

Making a pull request

The basic procedure to create a pull request is:

1. Fork the repository on GitHub. This gives you your own copy of the repository to make changes to.
2. Create a branch on your fork for your changes.
3. Make the changes you want to make on this branch.
4. You can then make a pull request to the project.

Pull request reviews

Pull requests will be reviewed by maintainers when they are available. Note that there might be a long wait time before a reviewer looks at your PR.

Depending on the changes, maintainers might ask you to make changes to the PR to fix problems or to improve the code. Do not delete your fork while your pull request remains open, otherwise you won't be able to make any requested changes and the PR will end up being declined.

Tip

Don't worry about getting a PR perfect on the first try. In fact, it's quite unusual for a PR to be perfect when it's first submitted, and most PRs will get changes requested by reviewers, even when the PR is made by one of our team members.

Mistakes are normal, and PMMP team members will review your code and suggest changes to your code as needed. Just make sure to stick with it so you can communicate with reviewers and/or make changes.

Requirements

The following are required as a minimum for pull requests. PRs that don't meet these requirements will be declined unless updated to meet them.

• All code must be licensed under the LGPLv3 license or a compatible license.
• Don't mix unrelated changes. Unrelated changes should be submitted as separate PRs.
• Don't make unnecessary changes. Unnecessary changes make a PR harder to review, more likely to develop conflicts, and more likely to be declined.
• Tell us what tests have been done. Ideally, include PHPUnit tests in your PR. If that's not possible (e.g. for in-game functionality), give details about playtesting (e.g. screenshots and videos).
• Code, comments and documentation must be written in American English.
• Code must be in the PocketMine-MP style.
  • If you use PhpStorm, a Project code style is provided, which you can use to automatically format new code.
  • You can also use php-cs-fixer to format your code.
• Use final, private and readonly wherever possible. This allows us to change more things later on if needed without breaking plugins (including making things non-final, writable or increasing visibility).
• Do not add unnecessary setters or public writable properties to classes. Immutable things are preferred because their behaviour is more predictable. This isn't always possible, but preferred wherever possible.

Recommendations

• Be patient. Maintainers are often unavailable or busy. Your PR might not receive attention for a while.
• Start small.
  • This helps you get familiar with the codebase, the contribution process, and the expectations of maintainers.
  • Check out "Easy task" issues on the issues page for something that you could tackle without too much effort.
• Try to keep your PR diff small. Small PRs can be reviewed and merged much more quickly than bigger ones.
• Do not copy-paste other people's code (or code written by AIs like ChatGPT). You'll likely be asked to make changes by reviewers. If you don't understand the code you're submitting, your PR is likely to fail.
• Do not edit code directly on github.com. We recommend learning how to use git.
• Use an IDE, not a text editor. We recommend PhpStorm or VSCode.
• Do not make large pull requests without an RFC.
  • Large changes should be discussed beforehand using the RFC / Change Proposal process.
  • Large changes are much harder to review, and are more likely to be declined if maintainers don't have a good idea what you're trying to do in advance.
• Create a new branch on your fork for each pull request. This allows you to use the same fork to make multiple pull requests at the same time.

Thanks for contributing to PocketMine-MP!

RFCs / Change Proposals

Change Proposals are issues or discussions which describe a new feature proposal or behavioural change. They are used to get feedback from maintainers and the community about an idea for a change, to decide whether or not it's a good idea.

Submitting an RFC

RFCs should be submitted using Issues or Discussions. RFCs can be submitted as pull requests if you've already written the code, but this is not recommended, since it's not guaranteed that an RFC will pass, in which case your effort would be wasted.

RFCs should include the following:

• A summary of what you want to change
• Why you want to change it (e.g. what problems it solves)
• Alternative methods you've considered to solve the problem. This should include any possible ways that what you want can be done without the change.

Voting on RFCs

Community members can vote on RFCs. This gives maintainers an idea of how popular the idea is. Votes can be cast using 👍 and 👎 reactions.

Please don't downvote without providing a reason why!

Implementing RFCs

Anyone can write the code to implement an RFC, and submit a pull request for it. It doesn't have to be the RFC author.

Implementations should be submitted as pull requests. The pull request description must include a link to the RFC.