Contributing to Flutter

Build Status

See also: Flutter's code of conduct

Things you will need

  • Linux, Mac OS X, or Windows.
  • git (used for source version control).
  • An ssh client (used to authenticate with GitHub).

Getting the code and configuring your environment

  • Ensure all the dependencies described in the previous section are installed.
  • Fork https://github.com/flutter/packages into your own GitHub account. If you already have a fork, and are now installing a development environment on a new machine, make sure you‘ve updated your fork so that you don’t use stale configuration options from long ago.
  • If you haven‘t configured your machine with an SSH key that’s known to github, then follow GitHub's directions to generate an SSH key.
  • git clone git@github.com:<your_name_here>/packages.git
  • cd packages
  • git remote add upstream git@github.com:flutter/packages.git (So that you fetch from the master repository, not your clone, when running git fetch et al.)

Running the examples

To run an example with a prebuilt binary from the cloud, switch to that example's directory, run flutter packages get to make sure its dependencies have been downloaded, and use flutter run. Make sure you have a device connected over USB and debugging enabled on that device. For example:

  • cd packages/palette_generator/example
  • flutter packages get
  • flutter run

Contributing code

We gladly accept contributions via GitHub pull requests.

Please peruse our style guide and design principles before working on anything non-trivial. These guidelines are intended to keep the code consistent and avoid common pitfalls.

To start working on a patch:

  • git fetch upstream
  • git checkout upstream/master -b <name_of_your_branch>
  • Hack away.
  • Verify changes with flutter_plugin_tools
pub global activate flutter_plugin_tools
pub global run flutter_plugin_tools format --plugins package_name
pub global run flutter_plugin_tools analyze --plugins package_name
pub global run flutter_plugin_tools test --plugins package_name
  • Check that the package can be published (but don't publish it until it has landed!):
cd packages/package_name; pub publish --dry-run
  • git commit -a -m "<your informative commit message>"
  • git push origin <name_of_your_branch>

To send us a pull request:

  • git pull-request (if you are using Hub) or go to https://github.com/flutter/packages and click the “Compare & pull request” button

Please make sure all your checkins have detailed commit messages explaining the patch.

Once you've gotten an LGTM from a project maintainer and once your PR has received the green light from all our automated testing (Travis, AppVeyor, etc), submit your changes to the master branch using one of the following methods:

  • Wait for one of the project maintainers to submit it for you.
  • Click the green “Merge pull request” button on the GitHub UI of your pull request (requires commit access).

You must complete the Contributor License Agreement. You can do this online, and it only takes a minute. If you‘ve never submitted code before, you must add your (or your organization’s) name and contact info to the AUTHORS file.

We grant commit access to people who have gained our trust and demonstrated a commitment to Flutter.