Contributing

Thanks for contributing to QuantRuntimeSettings.

Ground Rules

Prefer small pull requests with one clear purpose.
Keep refactors separate from behavior, contract, workflow, or documentation changes.
Preserve this repository's boundary as a runtime settings schema and tooling package; do not move broker execution, live-allocation decisions, private credentials, or unrelated platform logic into it.
Add or update tests, examples, docs, or reproducible evidence when changing behavior or public contracts.
Verify changes that touch strategy switch targets, automation, secrets, cloud resources, or broker/exchange behavior with a test environment, dry-run, or read-only evidence before they affect production; do not change production on the strength of a documentation example alone.

Keep README.md as the entry point for project purpose, boundary, repository layout, quick start, and links to deeper docs.
Put long-form runbooks, artifact contracts, evidence notes, and architecture details under docs/ when they outgrow the README.
Document inputs, outputs, required permissions, risk controls, and validation commands for workflows or scripts that touch external systems.
Keep English and Chinese user-facing docs aligned when a change affects operators, contributors, or downstream platform users.

Create a topic branch for each change.
Open a pull request with a concise summary, scope boundary, and concrete validation notes.
Wait for CI to pass before merging.
Do not include generated artifacts, private data, credentials, account identifiers, or local environment files unless the repository explicitly documents them as public examples.

Run the lightweight whitespace check for every change and the repository test command when code, contracts, workflows, or examples change:

git diff --check
python3 scripts/runtime_settings.py validate
python3 -m unittest discover -s tests -v

For documentation-only changes, at minimum review Markdown links, headings, and bilingual consistency before opening the pull request.