Contributing Guide

Contributing Guide

See the full CONTRIBUTING.md in the repository for detailed guidelines.

Quick Start

1. Browse open issues — look for good first issue labels
2. Fork the repo and create a feature branch from main
3. Implement the fix or feature (one issue per PR)
4. Open a pull request referencing the issue number

Key Rules

• Use AppSettings, never QSettings — all persistence via AppSettings::instance()
• Match the dark theme — copy colors from existing widgets
• No feedback loops — use QSignalBlocker when updating UI from model signals
• Multi-Flex safety — filter by client_handle
• One PR per issue — keep changes focused
• Test the RX chain — discovery → connect → FFT → audio must still work

AI-Assisted Contributions

See AI-Assisted Development for how to contribute using Claude AI.

Reporting Bugs

The fastest path is Help → Support… inside AetherSDR — it builds a support bundle, copies an AI prompt to your clipboard, and opens GitHub's bug-report form. See Support and Logging for the detailed walk-through (logging categories, when to enable each, privacy notes).

If you'd rather file by hand, use the bug report template and include:

• What happened vs. what you expected
• Radio model and firmware version
• OS, distro, and Qt version
• Log file (~/.config/AetherSDR/AetherSDR/aethersdr.log — see Support and Logging for macOS / Windows paths)

Feature Requests

Click the lightbulb 💡 in AetherSDR's title bar (or use Help → Submit your idea… 💡) — it opens the AI-Assisted Issue Reporter which pastes a structured prompt into Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, or Perplexity and lets you describe your idea in plain English; the AI writes the issue body for you.

If you'd rather file by hand, use the feature request template. The prompt the lightbulb uses is also documented in CONTRIBUTING.md.