# Contributing

[English](CONTRIBUTING.md) | [Simplified Chinese](CONTRIBUTING.zh-CN.md)

Tick is intentionally small. Contributions should make the time-step primitive
clearer, safer, more portable, or easier to study without quietly turning it
into a goal manager or autonomous-agent framework.

## Good contribution routes

- Reproduce a protocol defect with a provider-free test.
- Improve fail-closed behavior around terminal, disposal, or recovery state.
- Add a Harness adapter while preserving the same canonical semantics.
- Improve installation, observation, audit hygiene, or experimental design.
- Report a real observation with enough detail to reproduce it.

Large changes should explain the goal function and why the proposed mechanism
serves it better than an extension outside the core plugin.

## Development setup

Use Node.js 24. The unit suite has no third-party runtime dependencies.

```bash
node --test
node scripts/protocol-demo.mjs --check
node scripts/release-gate.mjs
npm pack --dry-run
```

To run the real DSH command-registry gate without a provider call:

```bash
DSH_INSTALL_ROOT=/path/to/dsh npm run test:dsh-registry
```

## Pull requests

Please include:

1. the observable problem;
2. the intended contract;
3. tests that fail before and pass after the change;
4. provider and network use, if any;
5. changes to evidence or claim boundaries;
6. English and Simplified Chinese public-surface updates when user-facing text
   changes.

Do not add silent fallback, unbounded continuation, ordinary-conversation
auto-start, hidden prompt injection, or active-turn steering.

## Observation reports

Use the Tick observation issue form. Separate source-level, provider-free,
real-Harness, real-provider, and independently reproduced evidence. A model's
self-description is useful qualitative data but not proof of hidden thought.

Review every trace before sharing it. Remove credentials, private prompts,
workspace paths, personal information, and unrelated provider output.