TORCH/CONTRIBUTING.md

CONTRIBUTING.md

Guidelines for humans and agents proposing changes.

Change principles

• Keep changes focused and minimal.
• Explain why the change is needed, not only what changed.
• Preserve generic behavior unless explicit repository-specific behavior is required.

Before opening a PR

1. Confirm AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md were followed.
2. Run relevant checks/tests for the changed scope.
3. Update documentation impacted by behavior or workflow changes.
4. If reusable knowledge was discovered, update/add a note in docs/agent-handoffs/.
5. If an issue remains active, update KNOWN_ISSUES.md.

Commit guidance

• Use clear, descriptive commit messages.
• Keep unrelated edits in separate commits.
• Do not commit temporary debug code, generated noise, or local-only artifacts.

PR guidance

Include:

• What changed
• Why it changed
• Validation performed
• Follow-up items or risks

If no tests/checks were run, explicitly state why.

Agent handoff expectations

When your work creates reusable context:

• Prefer updating an existing handoff note over creating duplicates.
• If creating a new note, use YYYY-MM-DD-short-topic.md.
• Keep notes generic and actionable.
• Use the required sections from docs/agent-handoffs/README.md.

Documentation maintenance

When workflows change:

• Update KNOWN_ISSUES.md for newly discovered active limitations/workarounds.
• Add/update a learning or incident note for durable guidance.