Contributing#

Contributions to context-aware-rag fall into the following three categories.

  1. To report a bug, request a new feature, or report a problem with documentation, file a bug describing in detail the problem or new feature. The context-aware-rag team evaluates and triages bugs and schedules them for a release. If you believe the bug needs priority attention, comment on the bug to notify the team.

  2. To propose and implement a new Feature, file a new feature request issue. Describe the intended feature and discuss the design and implementation with the team and community. Once the team agrees that the plan is good, go ahead and implement it, using the code contributions guide below.

  3. To implement a feature or bug-fix for an existing outstanding issue, follow the code contributions guide below. If you need more context on a particular issue, ask in a comment.

As contributors and maintainers of context-aware-rag, you are expected to abide by context-aware-rag’s code of conduct. More information can be found at: Contributor Code of Conduct.

Set Up Your Development Environment#

Prerequisites#

context-aware-rag is a Python library that doesn’t require a GPU to run the workflow by default. You can deploy the core workflows using one of the following:

  • Ubuntu or other Linux distributions, including WSL, in a Python virtual environment.

Creating the Environment#

  1. Fork the context-aware-rag repository choosing Fork on the context-aware-rag repository page.

  2. Clone your personal fork of the context-aware-rag repository to your local machine.

    git clone <your fork url> context-aware-rag
cd context-aware-rag

    Then, set the upstream to the main repository and fetch the latest changes:

    git remote add upstream git@github.com:NVIDIA/context-aware-rag.git
git fetch --all

  3. Initialize, fetch, and update submodules in the Git repository.

    git submodule update --init --recursive

  4. Create a Python environment.

    uv venv --seed .venv
source .venv/bin/activate

Install the context-aware-rag Library#

uv pip install -e .

Code contributions#

Your first issue#

  1. Find an issue to work on. The best way is to search for issues with the good first issue label.

  2. Make sure that you can contribute your work to open source (no license and/or patent conflict is introduced by your code). You will need to sign your commit.

  3. Comment on the issue stating that you are going to work on it.

  4. Fork the context-aware-rag repository

  5. Code!

  6. When done, create your pull request. Select main as the Target branch of your pull request.

    • Ensure the body of the pull request references the issue you are working on in the form of Closes #<issue number>.

  7. Wait for other developers to review your code and update code as needed.

  8. Once reviewed and approved, a context-aware-rag developer will merge your pull request.

Remember, if you are unsure about anything, don’t hesitate to comment on issues and ask for clarifications!

Signing Your Work#

  • We require that all contributors “sign-off” on their commits. This certifies that the contribution is your original work, or you have rights to submit it under the same license, or a compatible license.

    • Any contribution which contains commits that are not Signed-Off will not be accepted.

  • To sign off on a commit you simply use the --signoff (or -s) option when committing your changes:

    $ git commit -s -m "Add cool feature."

    This will append the following to your commit message:

    Signed-off-by: Your Name <your@email.com>

  • Full text of the DCO is available at Developer Certificate of Origin

    Developer Certificate of Origin
Version 1.1

Copyright (C) 2004, 2006 The Linux Foundation and its contributors.

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.

Seasoned developers#

Once you have gotten your feet wet and are more comfortable with the code, you can review the prioritized issues for our next release in our project boards.

Pro Tip: Always review the release board with the highest number for issues to work on. This is where context-aware-rag developers also focus their efforts.

Review the unassigned issues and choose an issue that you are comfortable contributing. Ensure you comment on the issue before you begin to inform others that you are working on it. If you have questions about implementing the issue, comment your questions in the issue instead of the PR.

Developing with context-aware-rag#

Refer to the Get Started guide to quickly begin development.

Licensing#

SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright (c) <year> NVIDIA CORPORATION & AFFILIATES. All rights reserved.
SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
 *
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.

Third-party code#