Contributing

Thanks for your interest in contributing to barebill.

Getting started

Fork the repository on GitHub

Clone your fork:

git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/barebill
cd barebill
dotnet build src/WorkTracking.slnx

Confirm tests pass:
```
dotnet test src/WorkTracking.slnx
```

Branch and PR workflow

One branch per issue — create a branch named feat/<issue-number>-<short-description>
Never commit directly to main
Open a pull request targeting main; a human approves all PRs before merge
Reference the issue in your PR body: Closes #<issue-number>

git checkout main && git pull
git checkout -b feat/42-my-feature
# ... make changes ...
git push --set-upstream origin feat/42-my-feature
gh pr create --title "feat: my feature (#42)" --base main

Releasing

See the Releasing guide for the full tag-based release workflow.

Coding conventions

Key rules — see .github/copilot-instructions.md for the full reference.

C# 12, nullable reference types enabled everywhere
async/await for all database operations — no .Result or .Wait()
ViewModels must not reference any Window, MessageBox, or WPF types directly
Use IDialogService for dialogs, INavigationService for navigation
DateOnly in domain models; convert at the data layer boundary only
All DB access through repository interfaces — no raw SQL outside repositories
Schema changes are additive migrations only — never DROP TABLE or DROP COLUMN

Running tests

dotnet test src/WorkTracking.slnx

Repository integration tests use SqliteTestFixture, which creates a fresh temp-file database per test class. No test writes to the real app database.

Test naming convention: MethodName_Scenario_ExpectedOutcome

Commit messages

Use Conventional Commits:

feat: add invoice frequency warning (#42)
fix: resolve null reference in ClientListViewModel (#37)
docs: update getting started guide
refactor: extract invoice line calculation to Core