Files
effectcraft/CONTRIBUTING.md
T
Claude 24aed7f219 App: launching opens an empty project, not the demo (#204)
The desktop app opened the demo project whenever it wasn't given a
project file, so File ▸ New Composition on the Home screen added "Comp
4" to the three demo comps. As in After Effects, a launch now starts
with an empty Untitled Project. --demo opens the demo (Help ▸ Open
Demo Project and the Home screen tile still do); --empty is kept.

The arguments are parsed by a function now, with a test
(no_arguments_start_an_empty_project).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <[email protected]>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_018gnTnH3Jmk5zr4tMq1Mc9f
2026-10-07 22:13:19 +00:00

47 lines
2.3 KiB
Markdown

# Contributing to EffectCraft
Thanks for helping. Please read [AGENTS.md](AGENTS.md) first: its rules on assets and clean-room
work apply to everyone, people and AI agents alike, and they are not negotiable.
## Setup
You need [Rust](https://rustup.rs/) 1.95 or newer.
```sh
cargo run -p effectcraft -- --demo # the desktop app, with the demo project
cargo test --workspace
cargo xtask ci # what every commit must pass
```
## Ground rules
- **Clean room.** Work from After Effects' public documentation and its observable behaviour only.
Never use Adobe artwork, presets or code, and never copy GPL/LGPL/AGPL code.
- **Every asset is attributed.** Add a `.attribution` sidecar and an [ATTRIBUTION.md](ATTRIBUTION.md)
row; `cargo xtask assets` checks it.
- **Layering.** Nothing below the interface layer depends on UI or OS crates; see
[docs/architecture.md](docs/architecture.md).
- **Everything is a command.** New features are engine commands with an id, label, menu path,
shortcut and parameters, so the UI, the CLI and the MCP server get them at once. Interactive
widgets register an automation id.
- **Never crash.** Non-test code returns errors instead of panicking: no `unwrap()`, `expect()`,
`panic!`, `unreachable!`, `todo!`, `unimplemented!` or `unsafe`, checked indexing and arithmetic on
input-derived values, and a regression test with every crash fix. See the "Never crash" section of
[AGENTS.md](AGENTS.md).
- **Tests with every change**, and green `cargo xtask ci` before every commit. One task per commit.
## How to add…
- **An effect:** add an `EffectSpec` in `crates/effects` (AE display name, category, parameters
with AE's names, defaults and ranges) and its render function, with a determinism test and a
behaviour test. If it reads the clock directly, add it to `TIME_DEPENDENT`.
- **A command:** register it with `cmd!` in `crates/engine/src/commands/`, place it in the menu
tree in `crates/engine/src/menus.rs`, and test it including undo.
- **A panel or dialog:** `crates/ui-egui/src/panels/`; look at the result with the headless
snapshot tool described in [docs/testing.md](docs/testing.md).
## Talk to us
Questions, ideas and bug reports are welcome on [Discord](https://discord.gg/artcraft) and in
GitHub issues.