Every open source project lives from the generous help by contributors that sacrifice their time and ``python-telegram-bot`` is no different. To make participation as pleasant as possible, this project adheres to the `Code of Conduct`_ by the Python Software Foundation.
If you already know what you'd like to work on, you can skip this section.
If you have an idea for something to do, first check if it's already been filed on the `issue tracker`_. If so, add a comment to the issue saying you'd like to work on it, and we'll help you get started! Otherwise, please file a new issue and assign yourself to it.
Another great way to start contributing is by writing tests. Tests are really important because they help prevent developers from accidentally breaking existing code, allowing them to build cool things faster. If you're interested in helping out, let the development team know by posting to the `Telegram group`_ (use `@admins` to mention the maintainers), and we'll help you get started.
That being said, we want to mention that we are very hesitant about adding new requirements to our projects. If you intend to do this, please state this in an issue and get a verification from one of the maintainers.
The central development branch is ``master``, which should be clean and ready for release at any time. In general, all changes should be done as feature branches based off of ``master``.
Here's how to make a one-off code change.
1.**Choose a descriptive branch name.** It should be lowercase, hyphen-separated, and a noun describing the change (so, ``fuzzy-rules``, but not ``implement-fuzzy-rules``). Also, it shouldn't start with ``hotfix`` or ``release``.
2.**Create a new branch with this name, starting from**``master``. In other words, run:
3.**Make a commit to your feature branch**. Each commit should be self-contained and have a descriptive commit message that helps other developers understand why the changes were made.
- You can refer to relevant issues in the commit message by writing, e.g., "#105".
- Your code should adhere to the `PEP 8 Style Guide`_, with the exception that we have a maximum line length of 99.
- Provide static typing with signature annotations. The documentation of `MyPy`_ will be a good start, the cheat sheet is `here`_. We also have some custom type aliases in ``telegram.utils.helpers.typing``.
- Add ``.. versionadded:: version``, ``.. versionchanged:: version`` or ``.. deprecated:: version`` to the associated documentation of your changes, depending on what kind of change you made. This only applies if the change you made is visible to an end user.
- In addition, PTB uses the `Black`_ coder formatting. Plugins for Black exist for some `popular editors`_. You can use those instead of manually formatting everything.
4.**When your feature is ready to merge, create a pull request.**
- Go to your fork on GitHub, select your branch from the dropdown menu, and click "New pull request".
- Add a descriptive comment explaining the purpose of the branch (e.g. "Add the new API feature to create inline bot queries."). This will tell the reviewer what the purpose of the branch is.
- Click "Create pull request". An admin will assign a reviewer to your commit.
5.**Address review comments until all reviewers give LGTM ('looks good to me').**
- When your reviewer has reviewed the code, you'll get an email. You'll need to respond in two ways:
- Make a new commit addressing the comments you agree with, and push it to the same branch. Ideally, the commit message would explain what the commit does (e.g. "Fix lint error"), but if there are lots of disparate review comments, it's fine to refer to the original commit message and add something like "(address review comments)".
- In addition, please reply to each comment. Each reply should be either "Done" or a response explaining why the corresponding suggestion wasn't implemented. All comments must be resolved before LGTM can be given.
- Resolve any merge conflicts that arise. To resolve conflicts between 'your-branch-name' (in your fork) and 'master' (in the ``python-telegram-bot`` repository), run:
- If after merging you see local modified files in ``telegram/vendor/`` directory, that you didn't actually touch, that means you need to update submodules with this command: