Stardance is built in the open, and a big reason it exists is that teenagers, volunteers, and contributors on the internet show up to help build it. A lot of our team got here exactly that way, and we want to keep that door open. We also have to keep the thing running- it's live software that thousands of teens depend on, as well as uphold promises we've made to NASA, GitHub, AMD, and countless other partners.
If you can't explain what your change does and how it fits the larger system without an AI tool holding your hand, don't submit it. And if you can't show us it runs, we can't merge it. Everything below is just how we apply that.
Every PR from outside the core team needs evidence you ran the code. Pick whatever fits:
- A screen recording of the feature working (best for frontend changes)
- Before/after screenshots
- Pasted test outputs, asciinema links, showing what you ran to test
This can be fairly simple but should scale with the complexity of the proposed change.
Tell us what tools you used so reviewers know what to look for.
Community & first-time contributors
Keep PRs small and focused- one change per PR. We're unlikely to accept any PRs that are too complex from first time contributors, but will be more flexible depending on how you show that it works.
Contributors / volunteers / regulars
Every PR needs a testing section. Anything touching core systems (auth / shop / any migration or schema change etc.) get a core team review.
Core team (gap years & full-time staff)
Use whatever tools you want. Normal code review applies, but nothing extra. If you screw something up in production the full responsibility of that rests with you.
Stardance is written with plenty of AI assistance, and many maintainers embrace AI tools as a productive tool in their workflow. As a project, we welcome AI as a tool!
Our reason for the strict AI policy is not due to an anti-AI stance, but instead due to the number of highly unqualified contributions using AI.
I include this section to be transparent about the project's usage about AI for people who may disagree with it, and to address the misconception that this policy is anti-AI in nature.
This guide is heavily inspired by Ghostty's contributing guidelines.