Contributing to VibeCody

Thank you for your interest in contributing! This guide covers how to get your development environment set up, the project conventions, and the contribution workflow.

Development Setup

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/vibecody/vibecody.git
cd vibecody

2. Install Rust

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
rustup update stable

3. Install Node.js (for VibeUI)

Download from nodejs.org (LTS ≥ 18), or via a version manager:

# Using nvm
nvm install --lts
nvm use --lts

4. Install Tauri Prerequisites (for VibeUI)

Follow the Tauri v2 system prerequisites guide for your OS: tauri.app/start/prerequisites

macOS quick setup:

xcode-select --install

Linux quick setup:

sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev libgtk-3-dev libayatana-appindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev

5. Install Frontend Dependencies (for VibeUI)

cd vibeui && npm install && cd ..

Building

Build Everything

cargo build --workspace

Build Specific Targets

# VibeCLI binary
cargo build -p vibecli

# VibeUI (Tauri + React)
cd vibeui && npm run tauri build

Development Mode

# VibeCLI with auto-reload (cargo-watch required)
cargo watch -x 'run -p vibecli -- --tui'

# VibeUI with hot reload
cd vibeui && npm run tauri dev

Running Tests

# All workspace tests
cargo test --workspace

# Specific crate
cargo test -p vibe-core
cargo test -p vibe-ai
cargo test -p vibecli

# With output (useful for debugging)
cargo test -p vibe-core -- --nocapture

# TypeScript type check
cd vibeui && npx tsc --noEmit

Code Style

Rust

This project follows standard Rust conventions enforced by rustfmt and clippy:

# Format code
cargo fmt --all

# Lint
cargo clippy --workspace -- -D warnings

Key conventions:

  • Use anyhow::Result for fallible public APIs
  • Use thiserror for library-level error types
  • Prefer async_trait for async trait methods
  • Document public APIs with /// doc comments
  • Add integration tests in tests/ subdirectories for complex features

TypeScript / React

cd vibeui

# Type check
npx tsc --noEmit

Key conventions:

  • Functional components with hooks
  • Explicit TypeScript types (avoid any)
  • CSS modules or co-located .css files for component styles
  • Tauri IPC calls wrapped in typed helper functions

Project Conventions

Commit Messages

Use conventional commits format:

feat: add streaming support to Gemini provider
fix: handle empty git repo in get_repo_diff
docs: update VibeCLI configuration reference
refactor: extract ChatEngine from main.rs
test: add unit tests for DiffEngine
chore: update tokio to 1.43

Types: feat, fix, docs, refactor, test, chore, perf, ci

Branch Names

feat/gemini-streaming
fix/ollama-parse-error
docs/architecture-diagram

Pull Requests

  • Target the main branch
  • Include a description of what changed and why
  • Reference any related issues
  • Ensure all tests pass before requesting review

Areas to Contribute

Good First Issues

  • Add more unit tests for vibe-core modules
  • Improve error messages in the TUI
  • Add syntax highlighting for additional languages in VibeCLI
  • Document Tauri commands in src-tauri/src/

Larger Features

  • Additional AI providers — implement new AIProvider backends (17 providers exist today)
  • WASM extensions — develop plugins using the vibe-extensions WASM runtime
  • CRDT collaboration — enhance the vibe-collab real-time multiplayer editing
  • Agent skills — write new skill files in vibecli/vibecli-cli/skills/ (526 skills exist today)
  • Gateway adapters — add new messaging platform adapters (18 platforms supported)
  • TUI enhancements — improve the Ratatui-based terminal interface

Adding a New AI Provider

  1. Create vibeui/crates/vibe-ai/src/providers/<name>.rs
  2. Implement AIProvider for your new struct
  3. Export from vibeui/crates/vibe-ai/src/providers.rs
  4. Wire up in VibeCLI’s create_provider() in vibecli-cli/src/main.rs
  5. Add to VibeUI’s provider dropdown in src/App.tsx
  6. Document in the Configuration Guide
// providers/myprovider.rs
use crate::provider::{AIProvider, CodeContext, CompletionResponse, CompletionStream, Message, ProviderConfig};
use anyhow::Result;
use async_trait::async_trait;

pub struct MyProvider {
    config: ProviderConfig,
    client: reqwest::Client,
}

impl MyProvider {
    pub fn new(config: ProviderConfig) -> Self {
        Self { config, client: reqwest::Client::new() }
    }
}

#[async_trait]
impl AIProvider for MyProvider {
    fn name(&self) -> &str { "myprovider" }
    // ... implement remaining methods
}

Documentation

The docs/ folder is a Jekyll site deployed to GitHub Pages.

To preview locally:

cd docs
gem install bundler jekyll
bundle install
bundle exec jekyll serve
# Open http://localhost:4000

Pages use GitHub-flavored Markdown with Jekyll front matter. Add a new page by creating docs/mypage.md with:

---
layout: page
title: My Page
permalink: /mypage/
---

Then add it to docs/_config.yml under header_pages.

License

By contributing to VibeCody, you agree that your contributions will be licensed under the MIT License.