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Contributing to XAP

Thank you for your interest in contributing to the eXchange Agent Protocol.

XAP is early-stage. The protocol is in draft. The schemas are being hardened. The most impactful contributions right now are feedback and thinking, not code.

How to Contribute

1. Read first

Start with the schemas in /xap/schemas/. They are the source of truth. Then read the open issues and discussions to understand what is already being explored.

2. Open an issue before writing anything substantial

XAP is a protocol. Changing a field name or adding a required property can break every implementation. All significant changes start as a discussion, not a pull request.

3. Use the right label

Label Use for
schema-feedback Feedback on the five XAP schemas
edge-case A scenario the protocol does not handle correctly
vertical-schema Domain-specific capability definitions (finance, healthcare, legal, etc.)
implementation-feedback Problems encountered while implementing XAP
dispute-resolution Ideas for deterministic dispute resolution rules
security Security vulnerabilities (see SECURITY.md for responsible disclosure)

4. Edge Case Submissions

Edge cases are tracked in docs/edge-cases.md with a formal lifecycle:

  1. DISCOVERED — identified during development, testing, or community feedback
  2. DOCUMENTED — added to edge-cases.md with scenario, risk, and proposed resolution
  3. ANALYZED — resolution validated against protocol invariants
  4. RESOLVED — resolution implemented in schemas, SDK, or engine
  5. TESTED — validation test covers this edge case
  6. DEPLOYED — fix is in a released version

To submit an edge case, open an issue using the Edge Case template.

Severity guide:

  • S1 (Critical): Could cause financial loss or data corruption
  • S2 (High): Could cause incorrect settlement or broken invariant
  • S3 (Medium): Could cause degraded experience or incorrect state
  • S4 (Low): Cosmetic or unlikely scenario

When submitting, include:

  • Category: negotiation, settlement, receipt, verity, discovery, identity, adapter, or cross-cutting
  • Scenario: What happens, step by step
  • Risk: What goes wrong if unhandled
  • Proposed resolution: Your suggestion (optional but appreciated)

What We Are Not Looking For Right Now

  • Pull requests that change core protocol objects without a prior discussion
  • Implementation code (implementations belong in separate repos)
  • Marketing or copy edits

Code of Conduct

All participants are expected to follow our Code of Conduct.

License

By contributing, you agree that your contributions will be licensed under the MIT License.