Contributing to vibe-qc¶

Contributions and feedback both welcome. The decision tree below covers where to direct what.

Where to report what¶

What	Where
Security vulnerability — exploitable bug, memory corruption, anything you think shouldn’t be public-by-default	Email `mpei@vibe-qc.com` directly. PGP fingerprint `CC6D 30BB DF96 F694 C615 FBDE 4CD5 65CF 26B1 E7E5` (key at https://vibe-qc.com/_static/pgp/mpei.asc). See SECURITY.md for what to include and the disclosure timeline. Do not open a public issue.
Bug, install problem, missing feature, “this didn’t work the way the docs said”	GitLab issue tracker. Search for an existing issue first; comment on it if there is one. Filing requires a free account on `gitlab.peintinger.com`.
General feedback, question, “is this a bug or am I doing it wrong?”	Email `mpei@vibe-qc.com`. No GitLab account needed; replies go to your address directly.
Code-of-conduct violation	Email `mpei@vibe-qc.com`. See CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md.
You want to send a patch	Read the rest of this file.
You want to fund the project	GitHub Sponsors (recurring monthly) or Ko-fi (one-time). Full pitch + author bio + funding goals on the support page.

All contributors and maintainers are expected to follow the Code of Conduct.

Before you open a merge request¶

Confirm no existing issue already covers the change — if there is one, comment on it so we can coordinate.
Run the test suite locally and confirm it passes:
```
.venv/bin/python -m pytest tests/
```
If your change touches documentation, build the Sphinx docs locally and skim the affected pages:
```
sphinx-build -b html docs/ docs/_build/html
```
For anything that adds a dependency or changes public API, open an issue first to check scope fit.

Code style¶

C++17. Four-space indent, brace on same line for control flow. Everything in cpp/ lives under namespace vibeqc { ... }. Match the patterns in cpp/src/rhf.cpp / cpp/src/integrals.cpp.
Python 3.11+. PEP 8 with four-space indent. Start every module with from __future__ import annotations. Type hints on public API; local helpers can skip them.
Prefer editing existing modules over introducing new ones. If a new file is the right choice, follow the neighbors’ layout.

Commit messages¶

Imperative mood, first line under 72 characters (e.g. Fix SCF divergence on CH3 with SAD guess).
Longer rationale in the body if the what doesn’t explain itself.
Co-author trailers are fine for pair work.

What we won’t accept (for now)¶

API changes that break public signatures without a deprecation path.
New hard dependencies added without prior discussion — open an issue first.
Changes that regress the test suite without a stated rationale and a plan to restore.

Licensing¶

By submitting a patch, pull request, or any other contribution to vibe-qc, you agree that:

Your contribution is licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0 (the project license — see LICENSE).
You grant the project owner (Michael F. Peintinger) the right to relicense your contribution under alternative terms, including a future commercial license, alongside the MPL 2.0 public license. You retain copyright.

This is a lightweight alternative to a formal Contributor License Agreement. If you’re not comfortable with (2), please open an issue before contributing so we can discuss.

vibe-qc’s compiled core links libint (MPL 2.0), libxc (MPL 2.0), Eigen (MPL 2.0 / BSD-3), spglib (BSD-3), and pybind11 (BSD-3) — all MPL-compatible.