# Contributing Guidelines

The Helm project accepts contributions via GitHub pull requests. This document outlines the process
to help get your contribution accepted.

## Reporting a Security Issue

Most of the time, when you find a bug in Helm, it should be reported using [GitHub
issues](https://github.com/helm/helm/issues). However, if you are reporting a _security
vulnerability_, please email a report to
[cncf-helm-security@lists.cncf.io](mailto:cncf-helm-security@lists.cncf.io). This will give us a
chance to try to fix the issue before it is exploited in the wild.

## Helm v3 and v4

Helm v4 is currently under development on the `main` branch. During the development of Helm v4 and for some time after its released, Helm v3 will continue to be supported and developed on the `dev-v3` branch. Helm v3 will continue to get bug fixes and updates for new Kubernetes releases. Helm v4 is where new features and major changes will happen. For features to be backported to Helm v3, an exception will be needed. Bugs should first be fixed on Helm v4 and then backported to Helm v3.

## Sign Your Work

The sign-off is a simple line at the end of the explanation for a commit. All commits need to be
signed. Your signature certifies that you wrote the patch or otherwise have the right to contribute
the material. The rules are pretty simple, if you can certify the below (from
[developercertificate.org](https://developercertificate.org/)):

```
Developer Certificate of Origin
Version 1.1

Copyright (C) 2004, 2006 The Linux Foundation and its contributors.
1 Letterman Drive
Suite D4700
San Francisco, CA, 94129

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this
license document, but changing it is not allowed.

Developer's Certificate of Origin 1.1

By making a contribution to this project, I certify that:

(a) The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I
    have the right to submit it under the open source license
    indicated in the file; or

(b) The contribution is based upon previous work that, to the best
    of my knowledge, is covered under an appropriate open source
    license and I have the right under that license to submit that
    work with modifications, whether created in whole or in part
    by me, under the same open source license (unless I am
    permitted to submit under a different license), as indicated
    in the file; or

(c) The contribution was provided directly to me by some other
    person who certified (a), (b) or (c) and I have not modified
    it.

(d) I understand and agree that this project and the contribution
    are public and that a record of the contribution (including all
    personal information I submit with it, including my sign-off) is
    maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed consistent with
    this project or the open source license(s) involved.
```

Then you just add a line to every git commit message:

    Signed-off-by: Joe Smith <joe.smith@example.com>

Use your real name (sorry, no pseudonyms or anonymous contributions.)

If you set your `user.name` and `user.email` git configs, you can sign your commit automatically
with `git commit -s`.

The following command will update your git config with `user.email`:

``` bash
git config --global user.email joe.smith@example.com
```

This command will update your git config with `user.name`:

``` bash
git config --global user.name "Joe Smith"
```

Note: If your git config information is set properly then viewing the `git log` information for your
 commit will look something like this:

```
Author: Joe Smith <joe.smith@example.com>
Date:   Thu Feb 2 11:41:15 2018 -0800

    Update README

    Signed-off-by: Joe Smith <joe.smith@example.com>
```

Notice the `Author` and `Signed-off-by` lines match. If they don't your PR will be rejected by the
automated DCO check.

## Support Channels

Whether you are a user or contributor, official support channels include:

- [Issues](https://github.com/helm/helm/issues)
- Slack:
  - User: [#helm-users](https://kubernetes.slack.com/messages/C0NH30761/details/)
  - Contributor: [#helm-dev](https://kubernetes.slack.com/messages/C51E88VDG/)

Before opening a new issue or submitting a new pull request, it's helpful to search the project -
it's likely that another user has already reported the issue you're facing, or it's a known issue
that we're already aware of. It is also worth asking on the Slack channels.

## Milestones

We use milestones to track progress of specific planned releases.

For example, if the latest currently-released version is `3.2.1`, an issue/PR which pertains to a
specific upcoming bugfix or feature release could fall into one of two different active milestones:
`3.2.2` or `3.3.0`.

Issues and PRs which are deemed backwards-incompatible may be added to the discussion items for
Helm 4 with [label:v4.x](https://github.com/helm/helm/labels/v4.x). An issue or PR that we are not
sure if we will be addressing will not be added to any milestone.

A milestone (and hence release) can be closed when all outstanding issues/PRs have been closed
or moved to another milestone and the associated release has been published.

## Semantic Versioning

Helm maintains a strong commitment to backward compatibility. All of our changes to protocols and
formats are backward compatible from one major release to the next. No features, flags, or commands
are removed or substantially modified (unless we need to fix a security issue).

We also remain committed to not changing publicly accessible Go library definitions inside of the `pkg/` directory of our source code in a non-backwards-compatible way.

For more details on Helm’s minor and patch release backwards-compatibility rules, please read [HIP-0004](https://github.com/helm/community/blob/main/hips/hip-0004.md)

For a quick summary of our backward compatibility guidelines for releases between 3.0 and 4.0:

- Command line commands, flags, and arguments MUST be backward compatible
- File formats (such as Chart.yaml) MUST be backward compatible
- Any chart that worked on a previous version of Helm 3 MUST work on a new version of Helm 3
  (barring the cases where (a) Kubernetes itself changed, and (b) the chart worked because it
  exploited a bug)
- Chart repository functionality MUST be backward compatible
- Go libraries inside of `pkg/` MUST remain backward compatible, though code inside of `cmd/` and
  `internal/` may be changed from release to release without notice.

## Issues

Issues are used as the primary method for tracking anything to do with the Helm project.

### Issue Types

There are 5 types of issues (each with their own corresponding [label](#labels)):

- `question/support`: These are support or functionality inquiries that we want to have a record of
  for future reference. Generally these are questions that are too complex or large to store in the
  Slack channel or have particular interest to the community as a whole. Depending on the
  discussion, these can turn into `feature` or `bug` issues.
- `proposal`: Used for items (like this one) that propose a new ideas or functionality that require
  a larger community discussion. This allows for feedback from others in the community before a
  feature is actually  developed. This is not needed for small additions. Final word on whether
  a feature needs a proposal is up to the core maintainers. All issues that are proposals should
  both have a label and an issue title of "Proposal: [the rest of the title]." A proposal can become
  a `feature` and does not require a milestone.
- `feature`: These track specific feature requests and ideas until they are complete. They can
  evolve from a `proposal` or can be submitted individually depending on the size.
- `bug`: These track bugs with the code
- `docs`: These track problems with the documentation (i.e. missing or incomplete)

### Issue Lifecycle

The issue lifecycle is mainly driven by the core maintainers, but is good information for those
contributing to Helm. All issue types follow the same general lifecycle. Differences are noted
below.

1. Issue creation
2. Triage
    - The maintainer in charge of triaging will apply the proper labels for the issue. This includes
      labels for priority, type, and metadata (such as `good first issue`). The only issue priority
      we will be tracking is whether the issue is "critical." If additional levels are needed
      in the future, we will add them.
    - (If needed) Clean up the title to succinctly and clearly state the issue. Also ensure that
      proposals are prefaced with "Proposal: [the rest of the title]".
    - Add the issue to the correct milestone. If any questions come up, don't worry about adding the
      issue to a milestone until the questions are answered.
    - We attempt to do this process at least once per work day.
3. Discussion
    - Issues that are labeled `feature` or `proposal` must write a Helm Improvement Proposal (HIP).
      See [Proposing an Idea](#proposing-an-idea). Smaller quality-of-life enhancements are exempt.
    - Issues that are labeled as `feature` or `bug` should be connected to the PR that resolves it.
    - Whoever is working on a `feature` or `bug` issue (whether a maintainer or someone from the
      community), should either assign the issue to themselves or make a comment in the issue saying
      that they are taking it.
    - `proposal` and `support/question` issues should stay open until resolved or if they have not
      been active for more than 30 days. This will help keep the issue queue to a manageable size
      and reduce noise. Should the issue need to stay open, the `keep open` label can be added.
4. Issue closure

## Proposing an Idea

Before proposing a new idea to the Helm project, please make sure to write up a [Helm Improvement
Proposal](https://github.com/helm/community/tree/master/hips). A Helm Improvement Proposal is a
design document that describes a new feature for the Helm project. The proposal should provide a
concise technical specification and rationale for the feature.

It is also worth considering vetting your idea with the community via the
[cncf-helm](mailto:cncf-helm@lists.cncf.io) mailing list. Vetting an idea publicly before going as
far as writing a proposal is meant to save the potential author time. Many ideas have been proposed;
it's quite likely there are others in the community who may be working on a similar proposal, or a
similar proposal may have already been written.

HIPs are submitted to the [helm/community repository](https://github.com/helm/community). [HIP
1](https://github.com/helm/community/blob/master/hips/hip-0001.md) describes the process to write a
HIP as well as the review process.

After your proposal has been approved, follow the [developer's
guide](https://helm.sh/docs/community/developers/) to get started.

## How to Contribute a Patch

1. Identify or create the related issue. If you're proposing a larger change to
   Helm, see [Proposing an Idea](#proposing-an-idea).
2. Fork the desired repo; develop and test your code changes.
3. Submit a pull request, making sure to sign your work and link the related issue.

Coding conventions and standards are explained in the [official developer
docs](https://helm.sh/docs/developers/).

## Pull Requests

Like any good open source project, we use Pull Requests (PRs) to track code changes.

### PR Lifecycle

1. PR creation
    - PRs are usually created to fix or else be a subset of other PRs that fix a particular issue.
    - We more than welcome PRs that are currently in progress. They are a great way to keep track of
      important work that is in-flight, but useful for others to see. If a PR is a work in progress,
      it **must** be prefaced with "WIP: [title]". Once the PR is ready for review, remove "WIP"
      from the title.
    - It is preferred, but not required, to have a PR tied to a specific issue. There can be
      circumstances where if it is a quick fix then an issue might be overkill. The details provided
      in the PR description would suffice in this case.
2. Triage
    - The maintainer in charge of triaging will apply the proper labels for the issue. This should
      include at least a size label, `bug` or `feature`, and `awaiting review` once all labels are
      applied. See the [Labels section](#labels) for full details on the definitions of labels.
    - Add the PR to the correct milestone. This should be the same as the issue the PR closes.
3. Assigning reviews
    - Once a review has the `awaiting review` label, maintainers will review them as schedule
      permits. The maintainer who takes the issue should self-request a review.
    - PRs from a community member with the label `size/S` or larger requires 2 review approvals from
      maintainers before it can be merged. Those with `size/XS` are per the judgement of the
      maintainers. For more detail see the [Size Labels](#size-labels) section.
4. Reviewing/Discussion
    - All reviews will be completed using GitHub review tool.
    - A "Comment" review should be used when there are questions about the code that should be
      answered, but that don't involve code changes. This type of review does not count as approval.
    - A "Changes Requested" review indicates that changes to the code need to be made before they
      will be merged.
    - Reviewers should update labels as needed (such as `needs rebase`)
5. Address comments by answering questions or changing code
6. LGTM (Looks good to me)
    - Once a Reviewer has completed a review and the code looks ready to merge, an "Approve" review
      is used to signal to the contributor and to other maintainers that you have reviewed the code
      and feel that it is ready to be merged.
7. Merge or close
    - PRs should stay open until merged or if they have not been active for more than 30 days. This
      will help keep the PR queue to a manageable size and reduce noise. Should the PR need to stay
      open (like in the case of a WIP), the `keep open` label can be added.
    - Before merging a PR, refer to the topic on [Size Labels](#size-labels) below to determine if
      the PR requires more than one LGTM to merge.
    - If the owner of the PR is listed in the `OWNERS` file, that user **must** merge their own PRs
      or explicitly request another OWNER do that for them.
    - If the owner of a PR is _not_ listed in `OWNERS`, any core maintainer may merge the PR.

### Documentation PRs

Documentation PRs should be made on the docs repo: <https://github.com/helm/helm-www>. Keeping Helm's documentation up to date is highly desirable, and is recommended for all user facing changes. Accurate and helpful documentation is critical for effectively communicating Helm's behavior to a wide audience.

Small, ad-hoc changes/PRs to Helm which introduce user facing changes, which would benefit from documentation changes, should apply the `docs needed` label. Larger changes associated with a HIP should track docs via that HIP. The `docs needed` label doesn't block PRs, and maintainers/PR reviewers should apply discretion judging in whether the `docs needed` label should be applied.

### Profiling PRs

If your contribution requires profiling to check memory and/or CPU usage, you can set `HELM_PPROF_CPU_PROFILE=/path/to/cpu.prof` and/or `HELM_PPROF_MEM_PROFILE=/path/to/mem.prof` environment variables to collect runtime profiling data for analysis. You can use Golang's [pprof](https://github.com/google/pprof/blob/main/doc/README.md) tool to inspect the results.

Example analysing collected profiling data
```
HELM_PPROF_CPU_PROFILE=cpu.prof HELM_PPROF_MEM_PROFILE=mem.prof helm show all bitnami/nginx

# Visualize graphs. You need to have installed graphviz package in your system
go tool pprof -http=":8000" cpu.prof

go tool pprof -http=":8001" mem.prof
```

## The Triager

Each week, one of the core maintainers will serve as the designated "triager" starting after the
public stand-up meetings on Thursday. This person will be in charge triaging new PRs and issues
throughout the work week.

## Labels

The following tables define all label types used for Helm. It is split up by category.

### Common

| Label | Description |
| ----- | ----------- |
| `bug` | Marks an issue as a bug or a PR as a bugfix |
| `critical` | Marks an issue or PR as critical. This means that addressing the PR or issue is top priority and must be addressed as soon as possible |
| `docs` | Indicates the issue or PR is a documentation change |
| `feature` | Marks the issue as a feature request or a PR as a feature implementation |
| `keep open` | Denotes that the issue or PR should be kept open past 30 days of inactivity |
| `refactor` | Indicates that the issue is a code refactor and is not fixing a bug or adding additional functionality |

### Issue Specific

| Label | Description |
| ----- | ----------- |
| `help wanted` | Marks an issue needs help from the community to solve |
| `proposal` | Marks an issue as a proposal |
| `question/support` | Marks an issue as a support request or question |
| `good first issue` | Marks an issue as a good starter issue for someone new to Helm |
| `wont fix` | Marks an issue as discussed and will not be implemented (or accepted in the case of a proposal) |

### PR Specific

| Label | Description |
| ----- | ----------- |
| `awaiting review` | Indicates a PR has been triaged and is ready for someone to review |
| `breaking` | Indicates a PR has breaking changes (such as API changes) |
| `in progress` | Indicates that a maintainer is looking at the PR, even if no review has been posted yet |
| `needs rebase` | Indicates a PR needs to be rebased before it can be merged |
| `needs pick` | Indicates a PR needs to be cherry-picked into a feature branch (generally bugfix branches). Once it has been, the `picked` label should be applied and this one removed |
| `picked` | This PR has been cherry-picked into a feature branch |
| `docs needed` | Tracks PRs that introduces a feature/change for which documentation update would be desirable (non-blocking). Once a suitable documentation PR has been created, then this label should be removed |

#### Size labels

Size labels are used to indicate how "dangerous" a PR is. The guidelines below are used to assign
the labels, but ultimately this can be changed by the maintainers. For example, even if a PR only
makes 30 lines of changes in 1 file, but it changes key functionality, it will likely be labeled as
`size/L` because it requires sign off from multiple people. Conversely, a PR that adds a small
feature, but requires another 150 lines of tests to cover all cases, could be labeled as `size/S`
even though the number of lines is greater than defined below.

Any changes from the community labeled as `size/S` or larger should be thoroughly tested before
merging and always requires approval from 2 core maintainers. PRs submitted by a core maintainer,
regardless of size, only requires approval from one additional maintainer. This ensures there are at
least two maintainers who are aware of any significant PRs introduced to the codebase.

| Label | Description |
| ----- | ----------- |
| `size/XS` | Denotes a PR that changes 0-9 lines, ignoring generated files. Very little testing may be required depending on the change. |
| `size/S` | Denotes a PR that changes 10-29 lines, ignoring generated files. Only small amounts of manual testing may be required. |
| `size/M` | Denotes a PR that changes 30-99 lines, ignoring generated files. Manual validation should be required. |
| `size/L` | Denotes a PR that changes 100-499 lines, ignoring generated files. |
| `size/XL` | Denotes a PR that changes 500-999 lines, ignoring generated files. |
| `size/XXL` | Denotes a PR that changes 1000+ lines, ignoring generated files. |
