CONTRIBUTING.md

Contributing to Saint Errant

Welcome. You found us. That means something.

Saint Errant is a sovereign digital society — non-profit, open source, community-governed. Everything we build is public. Everything we decide is sealed to a chain. Everyone who contributes leaves a permanent mark.

This guide tells you how to become part of that.

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Before You Start

Read the README. Understand what we are and what we are not.

We are not a startup. We are not building for a pitch deck. We are not chasing users. We are building sovereign infrastructure for people who understand why sovereignty matters.

If that resonates — you're in the right place.

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Ways to Contribute

Code

The main codebase lives at DEVFLOW-FINANCE.

• Rust core — the sealing engine, WORM ledger, tier state machine
• TypeScript/Next.js — the War Room, agent system, API layer
• Discord bot — the community gateway at myapplication
• UK Treasury — the GBP capital and compliance layer

Community

• Answer questions in Discord — discord.gg/dugymT3rj
• Help new members find their guild
• Write documentation and guides
• Translate content

Research

• Cryptographic sealing improvements
• Local LLM optimisation (Ollama model selection, quantisation)
• UK financial regulation and compliance research
• Open Banking and PSD2 integration

Design

• UI/UX for the War Room and community hub
• Branding assets for the guilds
• Documentation diagrams and architecture visuals

Funding

• Contribute on Open Collective
• Every contribution is public, tracked, and goes directly to infrastructure

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Getting Started

1. Join Discord

discord.gg/dugymT3rj

Declare your guild. Get your role. Introduce yourself in #introductions.

2. Fork the repo

git clone https://github.com/SNAPKITTYWEST/DEVFLOW-FINANCE.git
cd DEVFLOW-FINANCE/collectivekitty
npm install
npx prisma generate

3. Create a branch from main

git checkout main
git pull origin main
git checkout -b feat/your-feature-name

Never branch from another feature branch.

4. Make your change

Keep it focused. One feature, one fix, one improvement per PR. No drive-by refactors.

5. Test it

npm run dev       # start the server
npm run lint      # check for errors
npm test          # run the test suite

6. Open a pull request

Use the PR template. Fill it out. Be specific about what changed and why.

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Code Standards

TypeScript

• Strict mode — no any without a comment explaining why
• No secrets in code — all credentials via environment variables
• No comments explaining what the code does — only why, when it's non-obvious

Rust

• cargo clippy must pass before PR
• No unsafe without sign-off from a Sovereign
• Deterministic IDs only — no SystemTime, no rand in the core

Git

• Commits in present tense: feat: add X not added X
• No force-pushing to main
• No --no-verify skipping hooks

Security

• Never commit credentials, tokens, or keys
• Ed25519 verification on all Discord interactions — non-negotiable
• SHA-256 sealing on all agent decisions — non-negotiable

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Governance

Major decisions go through COMMONS — our governance agent. Proposals are posted in #governance in Discord, voted on by guild members, and the result is sealed to the chain.

Minor contributions (bug fixes, docs, small features) go through standard PR review.

Sovereign-level decisions (architecture changes, agent modifications, treasury movements) require sign-off from the core architects.

See GOVERNANCE.md for the full process.

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First Contribution?

Look for issues tagged good first issue or guild: observer.

Or just ask in #dev in Discord — someone will point you at something real to work on.

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Recognition

Every contributor is recorded in the chain. Verified contributors get:

• @Verified Contributor role in Discord
• Name in the contributor list
• Permanent record in the WORM ledger

Run /verify github-username:YourHandle in Discord after your first merged PR.

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Saint Errant · Sovereign Digital Society We build in the open. The chain remembers everyone who contributed.