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Contributing

Sovrium is built in the open and welcomes contributions. Whether you are fixing a typo, improving the documentation, reporting a bug, or proposing a feature, this page explains how to get started.

Ways to contribute

  • Report a bug or request a feature — open an issue on GitHub with a clear description and, where possible, a minimal reproduction.
  • Improve the documentation — these docs are part of the repository; corrections and clarifications are always welcome.
  • Submit a pull request — implement a fix or feature and open a PR for review (requires certification — see below).

Becoming a certified contributor

Opening issues and reporting bugs is open to everyone. Submitting code, however, requires becoming a certified contributor. To get certified, contact us at contribute@sovrium.com and we will guide you through the process.

We introduced this step deliberately. The volume of unsolicited, AI-generated pull requests has made open contribution unsustainable for many projects — maintainers end up spending more time triaging low-effort, machine-written patches than building. Certification lets us:

  • Keep review capacity for real work — we are not overwhelmed by a flood of automated, drive-by PRs.
  • Guarantee a high-quality contributor community — certified contributors understand the codebase, the architecture, and the standards before they ship.

Certification is not a paywall and not a popularity contest — it is a short conversation to confirm you are a person who will contribute thoughtfully. Once certified, your pull requests are reviewed and merged like any other.

Before you start

  • Search existing issues and pull requests to avoid duplicating work.
  • For anything non-trivial, open an issue first to discuss the approach before writing code — it saves everyone time.
  • By contributing, you agree that your contribution is licensed under the project's Business Source License 1.1.

Development setup

Sovrium runs on Bun (1.3+). Clone the repository and install dependencies:

git clone https://github.com/sovrium/sovrium
cd sovrium
bun install

Run the app from source:

bun run start path/to/your/app.ts

Validate a configuration file against the schema:

bun run src/cli/index.ts validate path/to/your/app.ts

Coding standards

  • TypeScript throughout, written for the Bun runtime.
  • Conventional commits — prefix messages with feat:, fix:, docs:, refactor:, chore:, etc.
  • Keep changes focused — one logical change per pull request makes review faster.
  • Match the surrounding code style; the repository's formatter and linter define the conventions.

Submitting a pull request

  1. Fork the repository and create a topic branch.
  2. Make your change with a clear, conventional commit message.
  3. Open a pull request describing what changed and why.
  4. Respond to review feedback — maintainers will help shepherd the change to merge.

Trademark note

Contributing code does not grant any right to the Sovrium name or logo. See the Trademark page for how the brand may be used.

See also