# Contributing

All contributions must preserve the safety boundary in `SAFETY.md`.

## Workflow

1. Start from an issue or ADR-sized question.
2. Update `RESEARCH.md` when a claim or source changes; label facts,
   inferences, and unknowns.
3. Add or update host tests before adding a backend behavior.
4. Keep commits small: documentation/evidence, portable logic, and platform
   behavior should be independently reviewable.
5. Run the host build, full CTest suite, generated-file and manifest checks,
   safety audit, format/static analysis, and secret scan.
6. Do not add deployment commands or hardware execution to CI.
7. Never weaken `execution_eligible`, remove a permanent denylist entry, or
   bypass the Phase-0.5 minimal-startup configure failure.

## Source requirements

Use primary, public, open-source technical sources. Do not contribute
proprietary SDK content, leaked or decrypted headers/binaries, exploit code,
DRM bypass, direct register/MMIO access, firmware patches, or clock/SMU/fan
control. ROMs, BIOS images, and copyrighted game content are outside scope.

Guessed ABI declarations are not accepted. A symbol name is not a function
signature. When evidence is incomplete, record an unknown instead of adding a
plausible-looking definition.

## Style and compatibility

- C11, four-space indentation, no compiler extensions in the public API.
- Public structures begin with `struct_size`; API changes require tests.
- Destroy child handles before their context; cleanup failures must be visible.
- Use SPDX identifiers in new source files.
- Keep logs deterministic and free of addresses, credentials, user paths, and
  content filenames.
- Warnings are errors in project-owned code.

## Hardware changes

A pull request can prepare a disabled experiment, but review or merge does not
authorize console execution. Each hardware test requires explicit approval in
the active task and must follow the template in `TEST_PLAN.md`.
Startup changes additionally require the exact loader-caller evidence listed
in `docs/runtime/minimal-crt-feasibility.md` before an ELF may be built.