Contributing to Clinimatix Caravel

Thanks for helping make Caravel better. Bug reports, fixes, documentation improvements, and ideas are all welcome.

Caravel is maintained by Clinimatix, LLC under the MIT license. Please keep existing authorship and license notices intact.

Reporting a bug

1. Search the existing issues and pull requests first.
2. Include:
   • the Caravel version or commit, your .NET SDK version, and your OS
   • the smallest example that shows the problem
   • what you expected, and what actually happened
   • any error output, with sensitive details removed
3. If something on the roadmap doesn't exist yet, that's a feature request rather than a bug, and those are welcome too.

Keep private data out. Everything you post is public. Leave out personal or customer data, credentials, connection strings, production logs and private source code, and write a small made-up example instead.

Security issues go through SECURITY.md, not public issues.

Making a change

For a small fix (a typo, a clear bug, a doc correction), just open a pull request. Link the issue if there is one.

For anything bigger, such as a new feature, a public API change, or a new dependency, please open an issue first so we can agree on the approach. The design and roadmap page explains the principles Caravel follows.

A few guidelines:

• Keep changes focused, and add a test that shows the fix works.
• Prefer built-in .NET features to new dependencies. Any new dependency needs a clear reason and a compatible license.
• If you change a public API, explain what breaks and how to migrate.
• Document features as they actually behave today; describe planned work as planned.

Building and testing

Use the SDK version pinned in global.json (currently .NET 10):

dotnet restore Caravel.slnx --locked-mode
dotnet build Caravel.slnx -c Release --no-restore
dotnet test Caravel.slnx -c Release --no-build --no-restore

SQLite tests always run. SQL Server and PostgreSQL tests are skipped unless you point them at disposable servers or run the Docker-based script.

Testing Caravel covers the package and end-to-end scripts, database testing, and which checks to run for different kinds of changes.

After you open a pull request

A maintainer will review it. In the description, mention which checks you ran locally and any platforms you couldn't test. Maintainers arrange additional verification checkpoints as needed; every release requires passing cross-platform CI on its exact commit. See versions and releases for how changes ship.