wiicompiled/CONTRIBUTING.md

Contributing to WiiCompiled

Thanks for wanting to help! A few ground rules

The short version

• Code is judged on quality, not where it came from
• You must be able understand and be able to explain every line you submit.
• PR descriptions and responses must be written by you, not generated.
• Accuracy is the bar for anything touching game behavior.

Code quality

We don't care how your code came into existence. What we care about is whether it meets or improves the project's patterns and standards, and the only way we measure that is by reading it.

Low-quality code won't be merged, regardless of origin. AI slop and human slop get the same treatment.

If you use AI tools

That's ok, but rules apply:

1. You must be able to explain your changes. If a reviewer asks why a line exists or what a function does and you can't answer, the PR will be closed. "The AI wrote it" is not an explanation.
2. Write your own PR description. The description exists so reviewers know what you changed and why, in your words. Generated descriptions tend to describe everything and explain nothing, and they will get your PR closed.

Pull requests

• Keep PRs focused. try and keep it at 1 change per PR. Small PRs get reviewed fast.
• Explain what and why. Reference the issue if there is one.
• For anything affecting game behavior: identical behavior to real hardware is the goal. Be prepared to show your change doesn't diverge from the original game (hardware comparison, logs, whatever fits).
• Review feedback. It's about the code, not about you ;).

Bug reports

See the FAQ in the README

A note on related projects

WiiCompiled, Wheel Wizard, and other projects in this ecosystem are developed independently and each has its own contribution rules and all have their own rules around AI usage. What applies here does not automatically apply there, and vice versa. Check each project's own CONTRIBUTING file.

Legal

• Never!!! include Nintendo code, assets, or game data in a PR, an issue, or anywhere else in this project. No exceptions.
• By contributing, you agree your contributions are licensed under GPL v3.0, like the rest of the project.