---
title: Development
description: Building gwm from source, the test suite layout, and the contributing conventions (branches, commits, PRs).
navigation:
  title: Development
---

# Development

gwm is a small Rust crate (single binary). Build, test, and ship workflows are documented here.

- **[Testing](/development/testing)**: the integration test files (~1900+ tests across 75 test files, run on the ubuntu / macos / windows matrix), the mandatory red → green → refactor TDD loop, how to run a subset, and the `// regression:` sentinel-test convention.
- **[Contributing](/development/contributing)**: the Gitmoji + Conventional-Commit format, branch naming, the PR checklist, and the rules around the `CHANGELOG.md` / `changelogs/<version>.md` split.
- **[Stability](/development/stability)**: the 1.0 SemVer compatibility contract: which surfaces are covered (CLI, exit codes, JSON schemas, daemon RPC, `.gwm.toml`), which are free to change (TUI, human strings, internal Rust API), the MSRV policy, and the deprecation process.

## quick reference

```bash
cargo build              # debug build
cargo test               # ~1900+ tests across the integration files + unit tests
cargo fmt && cargo clippy -- -D warnings
cargo run                # opens TUI in the current repo
cargo install --path .   # install locally
```

A Nix dev shell is pinned in [`flake.nix`](https://github.com/kbrdn1/gwm-cli/blob/main/flake.nix), carrying the toolchain, `rust-analyzer`, `clippy`, `rustfmt`, `cargo-watch`, `cargo-edit` and the `libgit2` build deps, without touching the host system:

```bash
nix develop
```

## vs. bash script

The full background, what changed from the original `tools/worktree-manager.sh` and why, lives in the contributing page under "[history](/development/contributing#history)".

## changelog

Released versions live under [`changelogs/<version>.md`](https://github.com/kbrdn1/gwm-cli/tree/main/changelogs); the root [`CHANGELOG.md`](https://github.com/kbrdn1/gwm-cli/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md) only holds the current `[Unreleased]` section plus an index of past releases.