Contributing/Plugin development cycle

guidecontributingCARE 3.0+

All CARE plugins follow a shared development cycle to keep the ecosystem predictable and reviewable. Every plugin repository must use the develop branch as its integration branch.

Branching model

main          ─────── (tagged releases only)
                    ╱
develop       ───────────── (integration branch)
              ╱  │  ╲
feature/foo   ─   │   ─── feature/bar
                  │
fix/bug-123    ───

main: Tagged releases only. Merged from develop when cutting a release.
develop: Default integration branch. All features and fixes merge here after review. Must exist in every plugin repo.
feature/<name>: Branch off develop for new features.
fix/<description>: Branch off develop for bug fixes.
chore/<description>: Branch off develop for maintenance tasks.

Creating the develop branch

If a plugin repository does not yet have a develop branch, create it from the current state of main:

git checkout main
git pull origin main
git checkout -b develop
git push origin develop

Then set develop as the default branch in the repository settings on GitHub (Settings → Branches → Default branch).

Workflow

Branch: Create a feature/fix/chore branch from develop.
Build: Implement your changes on that branch.
Review: Open a Pull Request targeting develop.
Merge: After approval, squash-merge into develop.
Release: When ready, merge develop into main and tag the release.

Commit conventions

Use semantic commit prefixes for changelog generation:

feat:: A new feature
fix:: A bug fix
chore:: Maintenance or tooling
docs:: Documentation changes
refactor:: Code restructuring
test:: Adding or fixing tests
perf:: Performance improvements

Example: feat: add discharge summary endpoint

Review requirements

- At least one approval from a maintainer before merging. - All CI checks must pass. - The branch must be up to date with develop (rebased or merged).

Plugin lifecycle

Experimental: New plugin in active development. May break between commits.
Stable: Ready for production use. Follows the full development cycle.
Deprecated: Replaced or superseded. No active development.