Contributing to Buzz

Welcome, and thank you for your interest in contributing! Buzz is an open-source project and we're glad you're here. This guide will help you get from zero to a merged pull request.

If you have questions that aren't answered here, open an issue.

Code of Conduct
Before You Open a PR
Setting Up the Development Environment
Running Tests
Code Style
Making a Pull Request
Architecture Overview
Ecosystem
How to Add a New Event Kind
How to Add a New MCP Tool
How to Add a New API Endpoint
License and CLA

Code of Conduct

This project follows the Contributor Covenant v2.1. By participating you agree to uphold these standards. Please report unacceptable behavior to conduct@buzz-relay.org.

Before You Open a PR

Before starting, search open PRs and open issues for duplicates — someone may already be working on the same thing. When you open your PR, link the closest existing one in the description (or say "none found").

For anything beyond a small fix, opening an issue first is strongly recommended. Describe the problem and proposed solution so a maintainer can acknowledge the approach before you build — it avoids two people building the same thing in parallel.

Buzz is an agent platform, so AI-assisted PRs are welcome. No need to disclose the tools you used, but you own and must have reviewed the final code. Submissions that are clearly unreviewed may be closed with a pointer here.

We squash-merge, so your PR title becomes the commit subject in main. Use Conventional Commits format: feat(mcp): add get_feed_actions tool. The type prefix (feat, fix, docs, refactor, test, chore) is required. See the Commit Messages section for the full reference.

Sign Your Commits

git commit -s

Every commit needs a Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO) sign-off. The -s flag appends a Signed-off-by trailer that certifies you wrote the change and can contribute it under the project license. The DCO Check will block your PR without it.

Fix unsigned commits already pushed

git rebase --signoff main
git push --force-with-lease

Auto-setup for future commits

just hooks

This installs a commit-msg hook that adds the sign-off trailer automatically for git commit and git merge. Other flows (git rebase, git cherry-pick) still need their own flag — --signoff and -s respectively.

We review as capacity allows — focused PRs that follow this guide move fastest.

Setting Up the Development Environment

Prerequisites

Tool	Version	Notes
Rust	1.88+	Install via rustup
Node.js	24+	Required for desktop app commands and `just ci`
pnpm	10+	Required for desktop app commands and `just ci`
Flutter	3.41+	Required for mobile app — install via flutter.dev
Docker	24+	For Postgres, Redis, MinIO
`just`	latest	Task runner — `cargo install just`
`lefthook`	2.1.3 (Hermit-pinned)	Auto-installed by `just hooks` — no manual install needed
`sqlx` migrations	workspace crate	`just migrate` applies embedded migrations from `migrations/`

This repo uses Hermit for toolchain pinning. Activate it once per shell session:

. ./bin/activate-hermit

Hermit pins Rust, just, Node, pnpm, and other tools to the versions in bin/. Each tool is downloaded on first use. You can also run just bootstrap (which just setup calls automatically) to pre-download all required tools upfront. If you don't use Hermit, ensure your toolchain meets the minimum versions in the table above.

Linux: Tauri system libraries

Hermit pins language toolchains, not system libraries. On Linux, the desktop app's Rust crates link against GTK and WebKitGTK, so just ci (and any just desktop-tauri-* recipe) needs these installed system-wide first. On Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
  build-essential curl file libasound2-dev libayatana-appindicator3-dev \
  libgtk-3-dev librsvg2-dev libssl-dev libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev libxdo-dev \
  patchelf wget

This is the same list CI installs (see .github/workflows/ci.yml), so matching it locally keeps your results comparable to CI. Other distributions ship these under different package names — see the Tauri prerequisites for the equivalents.

Without them, just ci fails partway through just check with a pkg-config error such as:

The system library `gdk-pixbuf-2.0` required by crate `gdk-pixbuf-sys` was not found.

If you're only touching the relay, CLI, or other server-side crates, you can skip this and run the narrower recipes instead — just fmt-check, just clippy, just test-unit, and just test need no GTK.

First-Time Setup

# 1. Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/block/buzz.git
cd buzz

# 2. Activate Hermit (optional but recommended)
. ./bin/activate-hermit

# 3. Bootstrap tools + infrastructure
just setup

# 4. Install Git hooks (optional, recommended)
just hooks

just setup runs just bootstrap first — it copies .env.example to .env if it doesn't already exist, and invokes cargo, node, and pnpm to trigger Hermit's lazy tool download (each tool is fetched once on first invocation and cached thereafter). You can also run just bootstrap independently at any time; it is safe to re-run.

just setup then starts Docker services (Postgres on :5432, Redis on :6379, Adminer on :8082, Keycloak on :8180 for local OAuth/OIDC testing, MinIO on :9000 for media storage, and Prometheus on :9090 for metrics) and runs all pending database migrations.

Running the Relay and Desktop App

just dev   # starts the relay + desktop app in one command

just dev builds all agent tools, starts the relay (ws://localhost:3000) in the background, and launches the Tauri desktop app. The relay process is automatically killed when you quit the app or press Ctrl+C.

For a split-terminal workflow (relay logs visible separately from Vite output):

just relay        # terminal 1 — relay on ws://localhost:3000
just desktop-dev  # terminal 2 — Vite dev server only (no Tauri shell)

Stopping / Resetting

just down    # Stop Docker services, keep data
just reset   # Wipe all dev state and recreate it; installed Buzz is preserved

Development desktop state uses separate bundle identifiers (xyz.block.buzz.app.dev and per-worktree variants), a separate keyring service (buzz-desktop-dev), and ~/.buzz-dev. just reset removes those dev-only locations and the local Docker volumes. It does not touch the installed app's xyz.block.buzz.app data, buzz-desktop keyring service, or ~/.buzz nest.

Running Tests

Unit Tests (no infrastructure required)

just test-unit

Unit tests are self-contained and run without Docker. They cover event parsing, filter matching, auth logic, workflow YAML parsing, and more.

Integration Tests (requires running infrastructure)

just test

Integration tests spin up the relay and exercise the full stack — WebSocket connections, NIP-42 auth, event ingestion, search indexing, and workflow execution. just test starts Docker services automatically if they're not already running.

End-to-End Tests

End-to-end tests live in crates/buzz-test-client/tests/:

e2e_relay.rs — WebSocket relay tests
e2e_mcp.rs — MCP tool tests
e2e_nostr_interop.rs — Nostr protocol interoperability tests
e2e_media.rs — media upload/download tests
e2e_media_extended.rs — extended media tests (GIF, image processing)

Run them with (requires running infrastructure):

cargo test -p buzz-test-client -- --ignored

See TESTING.md for the full multi-agent E2E testing guide.

CI Gate

Before opening a PR, run the full CI gate locally:

just ci
# Runs: check + unit tests + desktop build + Tauri check + mobile tests

This is the same check that runs in CI. PRs that fail just ci will not be merged. If just ci fails on formatting, just fix-all fixes it in one shot (rustfmt + Tauri fmt + desktop, web, and mobile formatters).

Code Style

Formatting

We use rustfmt with default settings. Format your code before committing:

cargo fmt --all

To check without modifying:

cargo fmt --all -- --check

Linting

We use clippy with warnings-as-errors:

cargo clippy --all-targets --all-features -- -D warnings

Fix all clippy warnings before submitting a PR. If you believe a warning is a false positive, add a targeted #[allow(...)] with a comment explaining why.

No Unsafe Code

All crates enforce #![deny(unsafe_code)]. Do not add unsafe blocks. If you believe unsafe is genuinely necessary, open an issue first to discuss the approach.

Error Handling

Use thiserror for library error types.
Use anyhow for binary / application-level error propagation.
Do not use unwrap() or expect() in production code paths. Use ? or explicit error handling. unwrap() is acceptable in tests.

Logging and Tracing

Use the tracing crate for all instrumentation. Prefer structured fields over string interpolation:

// Good
tracing::info!(channel_id = %id, event_kind = kind, "Event ingested");

// Avoid
tracing::info!("Event ingested: channel={id} kind={kind}");

Commit Messages

Follow Conventional Commits:

feat(mcp): add get_feed_actions tool
fix(auth): reject expired NIP-42 challenges
docs(agents): document workflow MCP tools
refactor(db): extract channel queries into channel.rs
test(workflow): add approval gate integration test

The type prefix (feat, fix, docs, refactor, test, chore) is required. The scope (in parentheses) is optional but encouraged.

Making a Pull Request

What a Good PR Looks Like

Focused — one logical change per PR. If you're fixing a bug and refactoring a module, split them into two PRs.
Tested — new behavior has tests. Bug fixes include a regression test. If a test is impractical, explain why in the PR description.
Documented — public APIs, new event kinds, new MCP tools, and new config variables are documented. Update README.md, AGENTS.md, or VISION.md as appropriate.
CI passing — just ci passes locally before you push.
Clear description — the PR description explains:
- What problem this solves (or what feature it adds)
- How it was implemented (key decisions, trade-offs)
- How to test it manually (if applicable)
- Any follow-up work deferred to a future PR
Shows the UI — any PR that changes the desktop or mobile UI includes before/after screenshots (or a short recording for interactions) in the description. We can't run every branch locally — screenshots let us review UI changes same-day instead of waiting for someone to build your branch.

PRs We're Unlikely to Merge

Some kinds of PRs usually get closed — not because they're bad ideas, but because we can't safely review them without prior discussion:

Large refactors or dependency swaps without a prior issue agreeing on the direction
Cosmetic renames or style-only churn that doesn't fix a bug or improve clarity
Entirely new features with no prior discussion
Drive-by changes bundled into an unrelated fix — split them out

If you're considering any of these, open an issue first and we'll tell you quickly whether it's a direction we'd merge. That saves your time as much as ours.

What to Expect After You Open a PR

Maintainers triage new PRs on a best-effort cadence. Focused PRs that follow this guide move fastest.
Duplicates and PRs that skip this guide may be closed with a pointer here rather than a full review. A close isn't a rejection of you or the idea — address the gaps and reopen (or open a fresh PR) anytime.
Address review comments by pushing new commits (don't force-push during review; it makes it hard to see what changed).
Once approved, a maintainer will squash-merge your PR.

Architecture Overview

See ARCHITECTURE.md for the full system design and AGENTS.md for the complete crate map. The key design principles:

The relay is the single source of truth. All state flows through the event store. Crates communicate through the database and Redis pub/sub — not through direct function calls across crate boundaries (with the exception of buzz-core types, which are shared everywhere).

Event kinds are the only switch. Every action in the system — a message, a reaction, a workflow step, a canvas update — is a Nostr event with a kind integer. Adding a new feature means defining a new kind. No breaking changes to existing clients.

Ecosystem

Buzz is developed across multiple repositories. This repo (block/buzz) is the open-source home for all application code — the relay, desktop app, mobile app, CLI, and agent harness. Internal repositories handle enterprise-signed builds and infrastructure deployment.

See AGENTS.md § Ecosystem for the full repo table and dependency diagram.

External contributors: Fork block/buzz, open a PR, and CI runs automatically. No special access is required.

Block team members: See the internal sprout-releases CONTRIBUTING.md for team access setup, onboarding, and the full repo inventory. See RELEASING.md for the release process.

How to Add a New Event Kind

Define the kind constant in buzz-core/src/kind.rs:
```
/// My new event kind — description of what it represents.
pub const KIND_MY_FEATURE: u32 = 4XXXX;
```
Pick a kind number in the appropriate sub-range defined in kind.rs. Check the ALL_KINDS array for collisions. Each sub-range is documented with comments in the file.

Define the payload type in the appropriate module in buzz-core/src/ (e.g., alongside event.rs) if the content field is structured JSON:

#[derive(Debug, Serialize, Deserialize)]
pub struct MyFeaturePayload {
    pub field_one: String,
    pub field_two: Option<u64>,
}

Register the kind's required scope in crates/buzz-relay/src/handlers/ingest.rs inside required_scope_for_kind(). This controls which auth scope a caller needs to submit the event:
```
KIND_MY_FEATURE => Ok(Scope::MessagesWrite),
```
Handle post-storage side effects by adding a match arm in crates/buzz-relay/src/handlers/side_effects.rs inside handle_side_effects():
```
KIND_MY_FEATURE => handle_my_feature(event, state).await?,
```
handle_side_effects() runs after the event is stored — use it for notifications, cache invalidation, or derived data. If the new kind also needs an HTTP bridge surface (for example, a protocol helper that cannot practically use WebSocket), add a handler in crates/buzz-relay/src/api/ and register it in crates/buzz-relay/src/router.rs.
Persist to the database — if the event needs to be queryable, add a handler in buzz-db/src/ (e.g., buzz-db/src/my_feature.rs) with the appropriate INSERT and SELECT queries.
Index for search (if applicable) — Postgres FTS indexes persisted events automatically via the events.search_tsv generated column. To exclude a privacy-sensitive kind from search, add it to the CASE WHEN kind IN (...) exclusion in the search_tsv definition (see the initial schema migration) rather than wiring a separate indexer.
Audit — the audit log captures all events automatically; no changes needed unless you need custom audit metadata.
Write tests — add a unit test for payload serialization in buzz-core and an integration test in buzz-test-client that sends the new event kind and verifies the expected behavior.
Document — kind.rs is the authoritative registry of all kind numbers. Update README.md if it's a user-facing feature.

How to Add a New API Endpoint

Prefer a signed Nostr event and the existing WebSocket/POST /events ingest path over adding endpoint-specific JSON APIs. The relay intentionally exposes only a narrow HTTP surface: NIP-11/NIP-05 metadata, /events, /query, /count, /hooks/{id}, Blossom media, git smart HTTP, git policy hooks, and health probes.

If an HTTP endpoint is still necessary:

Define the handler in the appropriate module under crates/buzz-relay/src/api/. Resolve the request tenant before any auth or data lookup, use NIP-98 when the endpoint accepts user credentials, and keep community scoping explicit.
Register the route in crates/buzz-relay/src/router.rs using the narrowest path possible. Do not add new /api/* compatibility routes unless the product decision explicitly calls for one.
Add database queries in buzz-db/src/ only when the endpoint cannot be expressed through the existing event query paths.
Handle errors using the api_error(), internal_error(), and not_found() helpers in buzz-relay/src/api/mod.rs. Return (StatusCode, Json<Value>) tuples.
Write tests with the buzz-test-client harness in crates/buzz-test-client/tests/, covering auth, community scoping, and the relevant success path.
Document any public endpoint in ARCHITECTURE.md and user-facing docs.

License and CLA

Buzz is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. See LICENSE for the full text.

By submitting a pull request, you agree that your contribution is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license and that you have the right to submit it.

If your employer has rights to intellectual property you create, you may need their sign-off. When in doubt, check with your legal team.

Thank you for contributing to Buzz. Every bug report, documentation fix, and code contribution makes the project better for everyone. 🐝

Navigation Menu

Contributing to Buzz

Table of Contents

Code of Conduct

Before You Open a PR

Sign Your Commits

Fix unsigned commits already pushed

Auto-setup for future commits

Setting Up the Development Environment

Prerequisites

Linux: Tauri system libraries

First-Time Setup

Running the Relay and Desktop App

Stopping / Resetting

Running Tests

Unit Tests (no infrastructure required)

Integration Tests (requires running infrastructure)

End-to-End Tests

CI Gate

Code Style

Formatting

Linting

No Unsafe Code

Error Handling

Logging and Tracing

Commit Messages

Making a Pull Request

What a Good PR Looks Like

PRs We're Unlikely to Merge

What to Expect After You Open a PR

Architecture Overview

Ecosystem

How to Add a New Event Kind

How to Add a New API Endpoint

License and CLA

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Contributing to Buzz

Table of Contents

Code of Conduct

Before You Open a PR

Sign Your Commits

Fix unsigned commits already pushed

Auto-setup for future commits

Setting Up the Development Environment

Prerequisites

Linux: Tauri system libraries

First-Time Setup

Running the Relay and Desktop App

Stopping / Resetting

Running Tests

Unit Tests (no infrastructure required)

Integration Tests (requires running infrastructure)

End-to-End Tests

CI Gate

Code Style

Formatting

Linting

No Unsafe Code

Error Handling

Logging and Tracing

Commit Messages

Making a Pull Request

What a Good PR Looks Like

PRs We're Unlikely to Merge

What to Expect After You Open a PR

Architecture Overview

Ecosystem

How to Add a New Event Kind

How to Add a New API Endpoint

License and CLA