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Contributing

Kova is open source under the GNU General Public License v3 and welcomes contributions. This page covers how to build Kova from source, run tests, and submit changes.

Prerequisites

Tool Version Install
Node.js 18 or later nodejs.org
Rust stable curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
Tauri CLI v2 cargo install tauri-cli

Linux only — WebKit dependencies

sudo apt-get install -y \
  libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev \
  libappindicator3-dev \
  librsvg2-dev \
  patchelf

Getting started

git clone https://github.com/KovaMD/Kova.git
cd Kova
npm install
npm run tauri dev

The development server provides hot module replacement for the React/TypeScript frontend and automatic recompilation for Rust changes.

Project structure

Kova/
├── src/                    # React + TypeScript frontend
│   ├── components/         # UI components
│   ├── engine/             # Parser, layout detection, themes, keybindings
│   │   └── __tests__/      # Engine unit tests
│   ├── settings/           # Settings state and persistence
│   └── styles/             # CSS and design tokens
├── src-tauri/              # Rust backend (Tauri 2)
│   ├── src/
│   └── Cargo.toml
└── .github/workflows/      # CI and release automation

Running tests

npm test           # run all tests once
npm run test:watch # run in watch mode (re-runs on file change)

Tests live in src/engine/__tests__/ and cover the parser, layout detection, theme loading, keybindings, and utility functions.

Building a release

npm run tauri build

macOS universal binary

rustup target add aarch64-apple-darwin x86_64-apple-darwin
npm run tauri build -- --target universal-apple-darwin

Code standards

  • TypeScript strict mode is enabled — no any, no implicit conversions.
  • UI components belong in src/components/; pure logic belongs in src/engine/.
  • Write tests for all engine functions.
  • Maintain consistent indentation and naming with the surrounding code.

Submitting changes

  1. Fork the repository on GitHub.

  2. Create a focused feature branch:

    git checkout -b my-feature

  3. Make your changes and add tests for any new engine logic.

  4. Open a pull request against main.

Keep PRs focused

One feature or fix per pull request. Stacked PRs for related changes are welcome.

Reporting bugs

Open an issue at github.com/KovaMD/Kova/issues and include:

  • Operating system and version
  • Kova version (visible in Settings → Updates)
  • Steps to reproduce
  • What you expected vs. what actually happened

Attach your .md file if the issue is layout- or render-related.