Contributing: Start here

This section is for contributors working on the Incan compiler/tooling and language evolution.

If you’re new, start with:

• Architecture
• Layering rules

How-to guides (do)

• Extending the Language — when to add builtins vs new syntax; end-to-end checklists
• Author Library DSLs with incan_vocab — how to publish import-activated DSL blocks, scoped surfaces, and desugarers
• Auditing generated Rust — how to produce strict-surface generated Rust review reports

Tutorials (learn)

• Contributor Book (Advanced, Rust-first): Book index

Explanation (understand)

• Architecture — compilation pipeline, module layout, internal stages
• Duckborrowing — backend ownership planning for generated Rust
• Generated Rust quality — quality, performance, and hostability contract for emitted Rust
• Readable, maintainable Rust — team conventions and engineering practices

Reference (look up)

• Contributors — community acknowledgements for external contributions
• Backend behavior inventory — phase-0 inventory for preserving supported behavior during backend replacement
• Layering rules — dependency boundaries and guardrails
• Generated Rust stdlib coverage — generated-Rust coverage inventory for stdlib modules
• Hees.ai v0.5 dependency inventory — proof-lane dependency map and scope guardrails
• Rust-source backend deprecation policy — compatibility rules while semantic authority moves out of generated Rust

Design (RFCs and roadmap)

RFCs are design records (not canonical user docs):

• RFC index
• Roadmap

Before proposing new language features (syntax/semantics), read:

• Proposals: issues vs RFCs