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Project

This section explains how to change Atlas. It covers the contributor workflow and the architectural rules that code, documentation, tests, migrations, and proposals must follow.

Who this section is for

Use this section when you plan to submit or review an Atlas change. It explains:

  • how a proposed change moves from an issue through review and merge;
  • where backend and frontend development commands live;
  • which architectural constraints a contribution must follow; and
  • when to use product or plugin-author documentation instead of Core contribution guidance.

Start here

Read Contributing first for development entry points, validation expectations, the proposal workflow, and licensing.

Suggested reading order

  1. Contributing: set up a development workflow and learn how changes are proposed and reviewed.
  2. System shape: identify the runtime and package ownership boundaries your change affects.
  3. Architectural principles: review composition, isolation, and dependency constraints before editing implementation code.
  4. Plugin Development: use public extension contracts when your change belongs in a plugin rather than Core.
  5. Documentation authoring standards: follow the page contracts and feature guide template, and use source-backed examples when changing the site.

Repository and review workflow

Core lives in core/; selected product extensions live in plugins/; composer/ contains composition tooling; distributions/ contains distribution inputs; and docs-site/ contains the canonical site. Check the component README for local debug commands, then run the focused tests and validation closest to your change.

Documentation changes must preserve navigation and internal links, satisfy the page contract, validate examples, and build cleanly with uv run zensical build --clean from docs-site/. Review the linked issue and its agreed approach with the implementation. For unsupported behavior, submit a deliberate follow-up instead of a placeholder.

Section boundary

Project documentation covers work on the Atlas repository. It does not replace Getting Started for a first run, Operating Atlas for an installation, or Using Atlas for catalog tasks.