---
title: Contributing
id: contributing
---

# Contributing

## Questions

If you have questions about implementation details, help or support, then please use our dedicated community forum at [Github Discussions](https://github.com/tanstack/devtools/discussions) **PLEASE NOTE:** If you choose to instead open an issue for your question, your issue will be immediately closed and redirected to the forum.

## Reporting Issues

If you have found what you think is a bug, first search the [open and closed issues](https://github.com/TanStack/devtools/issues?q=is%3Aissue) to make sure it has not already been reported. If you cannot find an existing report, use the [bug report template](https://github.com/TanStack/devtools/issues/new?template=bug_report.yml). **PLEASE NOTE:** Issues that are identified as implementation questions or non-issues will be immediately closed and redirected to [Github Discussions](https://github.com/tanstack/devtools/discussions).

## Suggesting new features

If you are here to suggest a feature, first create an issue if it does not already exist. From there, we will discuss use-cases for the feature and then finally discuss how it could be implemented.

## Pull Request Guidelines

Every pull request must follow the [TanStack Devtools pull request template](.github/pull_request_template.md). Complete its description and checklist without removing or bypassing the required sections.

- Search the [open and closed pull requests](https://github.com/TanStack/devtools/pulls?q=is%3Apr) before starting work to avoid duplicating an existing contribution.
- Keep each pull request focused on one change or topic. Pull requests that combine unrelated changes will be closed with a request to split them into separately reviewable contributions.
- Write a concise description that clearly explains what changed and why. Follow the sections in the pull request template; a long, unstructured description makes a contribution harder to review.
- You may use AI tools to help generate code, but you remain responsible for understanding, testing, and verifying every submitted change. Do not submit unreviewed, low-quality, or irrelevant generated code.
- Do not mass-submit unrelated or low-quality AI-generated pull requests. We treat that behavior as spam and may close the pull requests, block the contributor, and report the GitHub account.

## Development

Before proceeding with development, ensure you match one of the following criteria:

- Fixing a small bug
- Fixing a larger issue that has been previously discussed and agreed-upon by maintainers
- Adding a new feature that has been previously discussed and agreed-upon by maintainers

## Development Workflow

- Fork this repository, we prefer the `feat-*` branch name style
- Ensure you have `pnpm` installed
- Install projects dependencies and linkages by running `pnpm install`
- Auto-build and auto-test files as you edit by running `pnpm dev`
- Implement your changes and tests
- To run examples, follow their individual directions. Usually this includes:
  - cd into the example directory
  - Do NOT install dependencies again or do any linking. Nx already handles this for you. Only run install from the project root.
  - Starting the dev server with `pnpm dev` or `pnpm start` (from the example directory)
- To test in your own projects:
  - Build/watch for changes with `pnpm build`/`pnpm dev`
- Document your changes in the appropriate documentation website markdown pages
- Every change that affects a published package must include a changeset. Create the changelog entry with `pnpm changeset`; documentation, CI, and development-only changes do not require one.
- Commit your work and open a pull request
- Submit PR for review

## Adding a new example

- Clone an existing example into the appropriate `examples` directory
- Name it the example name in kebab-case
- Update the new example's package.json to match the new example name and any other details
- Check dependencies for unused packages
- Install any additional packages to the example that you may need
- Update the docs/config.json file to include the new example in the navigation sidebar
- Commit the example eg. `docs: Add example-name`