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Contribution Guidelines

Contributions are welcome and appreciated! Whether it's fixing a bug, improving documentation, adding a feature, or enhancing tests.

Before opening a pull request, please read the following guidelines to ensure smooth collaboration.

Contribution Rules

  1. Backward Compatibility: Keep the project backward compatible and follow existing Go coding conventions.
  2. Tests: Add unit tests for any new features, bug fixes, or important logic changes. Ensure all existing tests continue to pass.
  3. Commit Messages: Use descriptive, meaningful commit messages. Clean up/squash your commit history before submitting your PR.
  4. Documentation: Document any configuration flags, API changes, or new behavior in the corresponding docs/ files.

Running Linters

We use golangci-lint to maintain code quality. Please run it locally before pushing your changes.

Installing Linters

  • Debian/Ubuntu: 
    sudo apt install build-essential
  • RHEL/CentOS: 
    sudo dnf group install c-development

Install the Go linter utility: 

go install github.com/golangci/golangci-lint/cmd/golangci-lint@latest

Executing the Linter

Run the linter via the Makefile wrapper: 

make lint

Updating CoreDNS Dependencies

If you need to update CoreDNS or its DNS dependency packages:

go mod edit -go=1.25
go get github.com/coredns/coredns@v1.14.6
go get github.com/miekg/dns@v1.1.72
go mod tidy

Running the Documentation Site Locally

To preview your documentation changes locally, run the integrated static web server:

make docs-serve
This serves the documentation locally, allowing you to verify navigation and formatting before submitting PRs.