This document summarizes the most important points for people interested in contributing to Redot, especially via bug reports or pull requests.
The Redot Documentation has a dedicated Contributing section which details these points and more, and is a recommended read.
- Reporting bugs
- Proposing features or improvements
- Contributing pull requests
- Contributing to Redot translations
- Communicating with developers
If you are reporting a bug with an unstable development build, it helps us greatly if you open your project in Godot's current dev builds to ensure that it is not a bug we've inherited from their upstream work process, as we must let them work on those bugs to minimize merge conflicts on our end.
Report bugs here. Please follow the instructions in the template when you do.
Notably, please include a Minimal Reproduction Project (MRP), which is a small
Redot project which reproduces the issue, with no unnecessary files included.
Be sure to not include the .godot folder in the archive to save space.
Make sure that the bug you are experiencing is reproducible in the latest Redot releases. It's worth testing against both the latest stable release and the latest dev snapshot for the next Redot release, as well as the latest Godot dev snapshot.
If you run into a bug which wasn't present in an earlier Redot version (what we call a regression), please mention it and clarify which versions you tested (both the one(s) working and the one(s) exhibiting the bug).
The main issue tracker is for bug reports and does not accept feature proposals.
Visit the Redot Proposals Repo to suggest features or improvements to the engine.
Please refer to these links for detailed guides on workflow: (credit to Godot for these fantastic workflow guides)
Additionally, we expect all PR contributors to be using Pre-Commit to speed up PR workflow. See the Code Style doc above for more information.
If you want to add new engine features, please make sure that:
- This functionality is desired, which means that it solves a common use case that several users will need in their real-life projects.
- You talked to other developers on how to implement it best. See also Proposing features or improvements.
- Even if it doesn't get merged, your PR is useful for future work by another developer.
Similar rules can be applied when contributing bug fixes - it's always best to discuss the implementation in the bug report first if you are not 100% about what would be the best fix.
Read the Redot Documentation for information and guides related to contribution and pull requests.
Try to make simple PRs that handle one specific topic. Just like for reporting issues, it's better to open 3 different PRs that each address a different issue than one big PR with three commits. This makes it easier to review, approve, and merge the changes independently.
When updating your fork with upstream changes, please use git pull --rebase
to avoid creating "merge commits". Those commits unnecessarily pollute the git
history when coming from PRs.
Also try to make commits that bring the engine from one stable state to another stable state, i.e. if your first commit has a bug that you fixed in the second commit, try to merge them together before making your pull request. This includes fixing build issues or typos, adding documentation, etc.
This Git style guide also has some good practices to have in mind.
The way you format your commit messages is quite important to ensure that the commit history and changelog will be easy to read and understand. A Git commit message is formatted as a short title (first line) and an extended description (everything after the first line and an empty separation line).
The short title is the most important part, as it is what will appear in the changelog or in the GitHub interface unless you click the "expand" button. Try to keep that first line under 72 characters, but you can go slightly above if necessary to keep the sentence clear.
It should be written in English, starting with a capital letter, and usually with a verb in imperative form. A typical bugfix would start with "Fix", while the addition of a new feature would start with "Add". A prefix can be added to specify the engine area affected by the commit. Some examples:
- Add C# iOS support
- Show doc tooltips when hovering properties in the theme editor
- Fix GLES3 instanced rendering color and custom data defaults
- Core: Fix
Object::has_method()for script static methods
If your commit fixes a reported issue, please include it in the description of the PR (not in the title, or the commit message) using one of the GitHub closing keywords such as "Fixes #1234". This will cause the issue to be closed automatically if the PR is merged. Adding it to the commit message is easier, but adds a lot of unnecessary updates in the issue distracting from the thread.
Here's an example of a well-formatted commit message (note how the extended description is also manually wrapped at 80 chars for readability):
Prevent French fries carbonization by fixing heat regulation
When using the French fries frying module, Redot would not regulate the heat
and thus bring the oil bath to supercritical liquid conditions, thus causing
unwanted side effects in the physics engine.
By fixing the regulation system via an added binding to the internal feature,
this commit now ensures that Redot will not go past the ebullition temperature
of cooking oil under normal atmospheric conditions.
Note: When using the GitHub online editor or its drag-and-drop feature, please edit the commit title to something meaningful. Commits named "Update my_file.cpp" won't be accepted.
If your pull request adds methods, properties or signals that are exposed to scripting APIs, you must update the class reference to document those. This is to ensure the documentation coverage doesn't decrease as contributions are merged.
Update documentation XML files using your compiled binary, then fill in the descriptions. Follow the style guide described in the Documentation writing guidelines.
If your pull request modifies parts of the code in a non-obvious way, make sure to add comments in the code as well. This helps other people understand the change without having to dive into the Git history.
When fixing a bug or contributing a new feature, we recommend including unit tests in the same commit as the rest of the pull request. Unit tests are pieces of code that compare the output to a predetermined expected result to detect regressions. Tests are compiled and run on GitHub Actions for every commit and pull request.
Pull requests that include tests are more likely to be merged, since we can have greater confidence in them not being the target of regressions in the future.
For bugs, the unit tests should cover the functionality that was previously broken. If done well, this ensures regressions won't appear in the future again. For new features, the unit tests should cover the newly added functionality, testing both the "success" and "expected failure" cases if applicable.
Feel free to contribute standalone pull requests to add new tests or improve existing tests as well.
See Unit testing for information on writing tests in Redot's C++ codebase.
You can contribute to Redot translations by leaving a volunteer application on the Redot Discord for us to review.
Please refer to Redot's editor and documentation localization guidelines for an overview of the translation resources and what they correspond to.
The Redot Engine community is largely centralized on the Redot Discord at this time, feel free to drop by!
To communicate with developers (e.g. to discuss a feature you want to implement or a bug you want to fix), the following channels can be used:
- Redot Discord: General community chat and development can all be found here.
- Bug tracker: If there is an existing issue about a topic you want to discuss, you can participate directly. If not, you can open a new issue. Please mind the guidelines outlined above for bug reporting.
- Redot Proposals Repo: Feature or improvement proposals.
- Redot on Twitter
Thanks for your interest in contributing!
—Redot Development Community