Contributing

Getting started

1. Fork the repository and clone your fork.
2. Create a branch for your change.
3. Make your changes, run cargo clippy and cargo test.
4. Open a pull request against main.

Code style

Follow the patterns already established in the codebase:

• Keep layers separate. The API layer should not import from imessage/. Everything goes through the MessageBackend trait.
• Use the existing error type. Add new variants to core_layer/errors.rs rather than introducing new error types.
• No unwrap() in production paths. Use ? or explicit error handling.
• Run cargo clippy before pushing. CI will fail on clippy warnings.
• Format with cargo fmt before pushing.

Where to find issues

Check the GitHub issues list for open bugs and feature requests. Issues tagged good first issue are a good starting point.

Testing

Unit tests live alongside the code they test. Integration tests that require a real Mac (Full Disk Access, Messages.app) should be marked with #[ignore] so they do not run in CI automatically.

cargo test                    # run all non-ignored tests
cargo test -- --ignored       # run ignored (integration) tests on a Mac with permissions