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🤝 Contributing to Civix

Thank you for your interest in contributing to Civix!
Our mission is to foster civic engagement and strengthen community collaboration, and we’re excited to have contributors from all backgrounds help make that vision a reality.

💡 Ways You Can Contribute

There are many ways to get involved — no contribution is too small!

  • 🐞 Report Bugs or Issues
    Help us improve by reporting bugs, errors, or unexpected behavior.

  • 💭 Suggest Features or Improvements
    Have an idea that could make Civix better? Share your suggestions for new features, enhancements, or workflow improvements.

  • 💻 Submit Code Contributions
    Fix bugs, implement new features, or improve existing functionality. We welcome pull requests that help Civix grow and evolve.

  • 📘 Improve Documentation
    Clear and accessible documentation helps everyone. You can fix typos, add examples, or expand explanations.

  • 🎨 Contribute to UI/UX Design
    Share design feedback, propose layout improvements, or enhance accessibility and usability across the app.

🛠 Setting up for development

  1. Fork the repository

  2. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/HarshS16/Civix.git
cd Civix

git clone https://github.com/Harshs16/civix.git

  1. Set up the project.

Contributing Guidelines

⚙️ Project Setup Instructions

Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure you have the following installed on your system:

Installation

  1. Clone the repository:
  2. Install dependencies: 
        npm install
  3. Database Setup: Create a new database for Civix:
createdb civix

Edit your configuration (typically a .env) to connect to your Postgres database:

DB_NAME=civix
DB_HOST=localhost
DB_PORT=5432
DB_USER=your_username
DB_PASSWORD=your_pass
  1. Running the Application: Start the application in development:
npm start

Branching Strategy

  • Always branch out from main:
git checkout -b feat/your-feature-name
  • Use these prefixes for your branches:
Type Prefix
Feature feat/
Fix fix/
Docs docs/
Chore chore/

📝 Commit Message Format

Use Conventional Commits for all commit messages.
This ensures a consistent and meaningful commit history that’s easy to read and automate.

Example:

git commit -m "feat(component): add navbar component"

🔄 Pull Request Process

  • Ensure your PR includes a clear title and description.
  • Link to any relevant issues.
  • Add screenshots or demos if applicable.
  • PRs should:
    • ✅ Pass lint and formatting checks
    • 👀 Be reviewed by at least one maintainer
    • 🔧 Be rebased or merged cleanly with main

Maintainers will review your PR and may request changes before approval. Once approved, your PR will be merged into the main branch.

🐛 How to File a Bug

If you’ve found a bug or unexpected behavior, please help us by reporting it:

  1. Open a new issue.
  2. Select the Bug Report template.
  3. Include the following details:
    • 🔁 Steps to reproduce
    • ⚙️ Expected vs. actual behavior
    • 🖼️ Screenshots or logs, if applicable

Providing detailed and clear reports helps us resolve issues faster and more accurately.

✨ How to Request a Feature

We welcome new ideas that can make Civix better for everyone. To request a feature:

  1. Open a new issue.
  2. Select the Feature Request template.
  3. Clearly describe the following:
    • 🧩 The problem you're solving
    • 💡 Why it's important
    • 🚀 Your proposed solution

Providing as much context as possible helps us understand your idea and evaluate how it fits into Civix’s goals.

✅ Pull Request Checklist

Before submitting your pull request, please ensure the following:

  • Clear title and description that explain what the PR does
  • Follows the branching strategy (feat/, fix/, etc.) and uses Conventional Commits
  • Code is well-formatted
  • Includes tests or relevant usage examples, if applicable
  • All new/updated components are documented
  • Screenshots/demos included (for UI changes)
  • Linked to a related issue (if one exists)
  • PR is up-to-date with the main branch (git pull origin main before pushing)
  • Ready for review: tagged with appropriate labels (e.g., enhancement, bug, docs)
  • Reviewed and approved by at least one maintainer

🧭 Useful Resources

📜 Code of Conduct

We follow the Contributor Covenant Code of Conduct.
Please be respectful, inclusive, and collaborative in all contributions.

🚀 Let’s Build Something Great Together!

Thank you for helping make Civix a thriving, community-driven project. Your contributions — big or small — make a real difference.