How to contribute to picochess latest version?

[Johan Sjöblom]

This is an experiment to see if "brave testers" can contribute to picochess and help improve it. If you do not want to learn github and PR feature branches this is a first experimental test to help anyone to contribute.

Would you like to help improve Picochess, even if you are new to github and perhaps new to programming?

I am testing a new beginner-friendly contribution path. You can describe an improvement, use an AI coding assistant in a GitHub Codespace, and submit a draft pull request without needing to install Python, Picochess, or an IDE locally.

Start here:
https://github.com/JohanSjoblom/picochess/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING-BEGINNER.md

For AI-assisted work:
https://github.com/JohanSjoblom/picochess/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING-AI.md

This is an early test. Please begin with a small documentation or UI improvement, follow the guide, and post a comment about confusing or failed instructions. Draft pull requests are welcome—maintainers will help with the technical review.

[Johan Sjöblom]

Steps seems to be roughly this when you follow the first link:

CONTRIBUTING-BEGINNER.md
        ↓
Create or choose a clearly described issue
        ↓
Fork Picochess on GitHub
        ↓
Open their fork → Code → Codespaces → Create codespace
        ↓
In the Codespace terminal:
./scripts/contribute ISSUE_NUMBER
        ↓
Make/test the change, with AI help if wanted
        ↓
./scripts/submit-contribution
        ↓
Draft PR for maintainer review

[Johan Sjöblom]

Essentially it works... You do not need to know how to create git branches or how to create a PR. You dont need to install anything, but you do need to create a github account if you dont have one.

Create a Picochess issue (and remember the ISSUE_NUMBER)
→ Fork JohanSjoblom/picochess
→ Create a Codespace in that fork
→ ./scripts/contribute ISSUE_NUMBER
→ Edit and test the change, with AI help if desired
→ ./scripts/submit-contribution
→ Draft PR targeting JohanSjoblom/picochess

I tested the flow and created a test PR (without any serious changes, but I could have done any change). My test PR is here: https://github.com/JohanSjoblom/picochess/pull/437

[Johan Sjöblom]

To manage your codespaces that you might have created, use this link: https://github.com/codespaces

[Andrea Gatti]

Hello Johan,

thank-you for picking up this topic, and elaborating with these posts, and the others related to the book creation script. I'd like to go thru these videos/instructions and see how much I can come up with. So, thank-you for sharing the path to follow -- now time for those like me, to go back and study a bit :-)

Thanks!

AG

[Johan Sjöblom]

Exciting. Good luck with the learning. We are all on the learning path and this group is definitely full of learners...

I have worked on the repository to make it AI-enabled, there are AGENTS.md instructions for AI in it. If you use github or codex AI it probably reads them without any prompt instruction, but if you use Claude Code you need to prompt Claude (once) to always read the AGENTS.md files. That saves both tokens but also prevents AI from breaking things.

Now I am hoping that at some point it would be easy to use codespaces for anyone to contribute... If you use github copilot then you can use it immediately in the codespaces... Codex and Claude code requires some setup work. I am currently trying to see if I can get my personal Codex to work in claudespaces...

-- Johan

[Johan Sjöblom]

Anyone who wants to be a collaborator let me know, I will add you on the github.