Contributing to ArviZ#

Welcome#

Welcome to the ArviZ project! If you’re reading this guide, that probably means you’d like to get involved and start contributing to the project. ArviZ is a multi-language open-source project that provides tools for exploratory analysis of Bayesian models. The package includes functions for posterior analysis, data storage, sample diagnostics, model checking, and comparison.

As a scientific, community-driven, open-source software project, we welcome contributions from interested individuals or groups. The guidelines specified in this document can help new contributors make their contributions compliant with the conventions of the ArviZ python library, and maximize the probability of such contributions being merged as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

All kinds of contributions to ArviZ, either on its codebase, its documentation, or its community are valuable and we appreciate your help. We constantly encourage non-code contributors to become core contributors and participate in ArviZ governance.

Before you begin#

Before contributing to ArviZ, please make sure to read and observe the Code of Conduct.

Communication#

Contact us on Gitter if you want to contribute to the project but you are not sure where you can contribute or how to start.

Contributing to ArviZ#

Historically, the most common way of contributing to the project is sending pull requests on the main ArviZ Github repository, but there are many other ways to help the project. You can contribute to ArviZ in the following ways:

Create an issue#

Submit issues for existing bugs or desired enhancements. Check Issue reports for details on how to write an issue.

Translate ArviZ website#

You can translate our website to languages other than english.

Review PRs#

Review pull requests to ensure that the contributions are well tested and documented. For example, you can check if the documentation renders correctly and has no typos or mistakes.

Manage issues#

Helping to manage or triage the open issues can be a great contribution and a great opportunity to learn about the various areas of the project. You can triage existing issues to make them clear and/or provide temporary workarounds for them.

Write documentation#

You can contribute to ArviZ’s documentation by either creating new content or editing existing content. For instance, you can add new ArviZ examples. To get involved with the documentation:

  1. Familiarize yourself with the documentation content structure and the tool chain involved in creating the website.

  2. Understand the basic workflow for opening a pull request and reviewing changes.

  3. Work on your content.

  4. Build your documentation and preview the doc changes.

Support outreach initiatives#

Support ArviZ outreach initiatives such as writing blog posts, case studies, getting people to use ArviZ at your company or university, etc.

Make changes in the code#

Fix outstanding issues (bugs) in the existing codebase. The issue can range from low-level software bugs to high-level design problems. You can also add new features to the codebase or improve the existing functionality. To fix bugs or add new features, do the following:

  1. Familiarize yourself with the guidelines before starting your work.

  2. Understand the development process and code conventions.

  3. Understand the basic workflow for opening a pull request and reviewing changes.

  4. Review and test your code.