Contributor Guide

🤝 Contributor Guide (Developers, Designers, QA & Community Volunteers)

Welcome to Refuge — Powering Belong on the Spectrum
Whether you are a non-technical community volunteer, a UI/UX designer, a student/apprentice, or a seasoned Flutter & Dart engineer, you belong here.

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1. Ways to Contribute (Technical & Non-Technical)

🌟 For Non-Technical Contributors & Community Volunteers

• Test Sensory Comfort: Try switching between our 4 sensory presets (High Clarity, Warm Calm, Low Stimulus Dark, and Low Motion) on your phone or computer and let us know if any screen feels visually overwhelming.
• Review Community Copy & Guidelines: Help refine the welcoming language in Start Here & Introduce Yourself, Announcements, and Community Guidelines (Issue #29).
• Assist with Circle.so CSV Exports: Help export and verify community history when an organizer asks (Issue #41). Re-import polish is not required to call 1.0 solid (#765).

💻 For Developers, Students & Mentees

We practice strict Ticket-Driven Development (TDD + BDD):

1. Pick a GitHub Issue: Browse Open Issues. Every issue includes a human-readable summary and a 🤖 LLM Execution Brief comment.
2. Create an Isolated Git Worktree (Never Push Directly to main):

   git worktree add .worktrees/issue-<ID>-<slug> -b feat/#<ID>-<slug>

3. Follow Red-Green-Refactor BDD:
   • Write or update a human-readable .feature scenario under test/features/.
   • Build the feature using CodeWithAndrea Feature-First Architecture (presentation / application / domain / data) and hooks_riverpod (HookConsumerWidget).
   • Verify zero analyzer warnings (dart analyze) and 100% passing tests (flutter test).
4. Zero PII & Zero API Keys:
   • Never commit real emails, member CSVs, passwords.yaml, or firebase_options.dart.
5. Open a Pull Request & Triage CodeRabbit Feedback:
   • Link the issue (Closes #<ID>), review @coderabbitai comments, and merge once all checks are green!