Skip to content

Contributing to bgms

Source: CONTRIBUTING.md

Thank you for your interest in contributing to bgms. This document covers the practical steps for building, testing, and submitting changes.

Ways to contribute

Contributions come in many forms, and all of them are valued:

  • Report a bug — open an issue and the bug report template will load automatically.
  • Suggest a feature — open an issue and the feature request template will load automatically.
  • Improve documentation — fix a typo, clarify a vignette, or add an example.
  • Write tests — help us cover edge cases and new functionality.
  • Review a pull request — a second pair of eyes is always welcome.
  • Contribute code — fix a bug, implement a feature, or improve performance.

For small changes (typos, documentation fixes), open a pull request directly. For larger work (new features, algorithm changes), open an issue first so we can discuss the approach before you invest time.

Getting help

If you get stuck or have questions about contributing, open an issue or contact the maintainer at .

Getting started

git clone https://github.com/Bayesian-Graphical-Modelling-Lab/bgms.git
cd bgms

Build and check the package:

devtools::document()
devtools::check()

Code style

bgms uses = for assignment (not <-) and omits the space between if/for/while and (. You do not need to memorize these rules; the pre-commit checks enforce them automatically.

Before committing, run the following in order:

# 1. Enforce code style
source("inst/styler/bgms_style.R")
styler::style_pkg(style = bgms_style)

# 2. Check for lint issues
lintr::lint_package()

# 3. Regenerate documentation (if you changed any roxygen comments)
roxygen2::roxygenise()

The pull request template includes a full checklist of these steps.

Documentation

  • Exported R functions get full roxygen2 blocks (@title, @description, @param, @return, @examples, @seealso, @export).
  • Internal R functions use plain # comment blocks, not #' roxygen.
  • C++ headers use Doxygen /** */ blocks on classes and methods.
  • C++ implementations use inline // comments only.

When modifying a function signature, update its documentation in the same commit.

Tests

Run the test suite with:

devtools::test()

Test files live in tests/testthat/. Each test_that() description should be an imperative sentence.

CI

Pull requests are checked automatically by GitHub Actions:

  • R-CMD-check.yaml — builds and checks on multiple platforms
  • test-coverage.yaml — reports test coverage
  • pkgdown.yaml — builds the documentation site

Commit messages

Use the format: type: short description. Common types: feat, fix, docs, refactor, test.

Contributors

All contributors are acknowledged in inst/CONTRIBUTORS.md.

Code of Conduct

This project is released with a Contributor Code of Conduct. By contributing to bgms, you agree to abide by its terms.