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Contributing to al-folio

Thank you for considering contributing to al-folio!

Pull Requests

We welcome your pull requests (PRs). For minor fixes (e.g., documentation improvements), feel free to submit a PR directly. If you would like to implement a new feature or a bug, please make sure you (or someone else) has opened an appropriate issue first; in your PR, please mention the issue it addresses.

Note that since #2048 al-folio uses the prettier formatter for its code, meaning all new submitted code must conform to its standard. If you don't have prettier installed for your setup and the prettier code check fails when submitting a PR, you can check the referred failed action in our repo. In that action there will be an artifact with an HTML diff showing the needed changes.

Adding your site to the showcase

Please do not open a pull request to add your site to the showcase list. We have retired that process. Instead, post a request in the Showcase category of GitHub Discussions with a link to your site and the group it belongs in (Academics, Labs, Courses, or Conferences & workshops). Requests are reviewed and added to docs/SHOWCASE.md in batches, so it may take a little while before your entry appears.

Repository Routing (v1.x)

al-folio is a starter in v1.x. Before opening a PR, route your change to the owning repo:

  • al-folio (this repo): starter wiring (Gemfile, _config.yml), example/demo content, documentation, visual tests, cross-gem integration tests.
  • al-folio-core and other al-* gem repos: component runtime behavior, layouts/includes/style primitives, feature logic, unit/component tests.
  • If a feature does not fit an existing plugin, propose a new standalone plugin first, then implement there.

For the change-type routing table, see AGENTS.md. For the authoritative area-to-gem mapping, see BOUNDARIES.md. For how the starter and gems connect at runtime — including the failure modes that produce no error message — see ARCHITECTURE.md.

Plugin Naming Convention (v1.x)

We use a hybrid naming convention:

  • Theme-coupled plugins: repo al-folio-<feature>, gem/plugin id al_folio_<feature>.
  • Reusable plugins: repo al-<feature> or neutral name, gem/plugin id aligned with plugin namespace.
  • Third-party non-al-* plugins are allowed in the ecosystem and can be featured.

Featuring Community Plugins

You can publish and own your own plugin, then propose it for featuring in al-folio.

  1. Open a Plugin Feature Proposal issue in this repo.
  2. Share plugin metadata (repo URL, gem name, plugin id, compatibility, owner, demo path).
  3. Open a PR to this starter updating:
  4. If requesting bundled status (not only featured listing), include starter wiring updates in:

Featuring and bundling are separate decisions:

  • Featured-only: catalog/docs entry and demo.
  • Bundled: also included in starter dependencies/plugin list by maintainers.

Plugin patch releases are published from their owning repositories. Update this starter only when a plugin release changes default wiring, dependency pins, documentation, examples, integration tests, visual baselines, or Docker/runtime release artifacts.

Test Ownership

al-folio is a starter kit in v1.x. Keep tests aligned with runtime ownership:

  • al-folio: visual regression + cross-gem integration + starter wiring contracts.
  • Gem repos (al-folio-core, al-folio-distill, al-*): component correctness/unit tests and asset/runtime contract checks.

Do not add duplicate component-level correctness tests to this starter when the component is gem-owned. See BOUNDARIES.md.

Local Validation

Before opening/updating a PR in v1.x, run:

bundle install
npm ci
npm run lint:prettier
npm run lint:style-contract
bundle exec jekyll build --baseurl /al-folio

The --baseurl /al-folio flag matters: the demo site is published as a project page, and building without it produces an unstyled site with broken links.

If your change touches plugin wiring or feature behavior, run the integration tests it affects. All six are gated by unit-tests.yml:

bash test/integration_comments.sh
bash test/integration_plugin_toggles.sh
bash test/integration_distill.sh
bash test/integration_bootstrap_compat.sh
bash test/integration_upgrade_cli.sh
bash test/integration_css_minify.sh

If your change touches visual tests, install Playwright browsers once and run:

npx playwright install chromium webkit
npm run test:visual

The full validated command set lives in AGENTS.md.

AI Agent Guidance

This repository includes agent entrypoints and skills for Codex, Claude, Copilot, and similar coding agents.

CLAUDE.md

The CLAUDE.md file serves as an entry point for Claude (Anthropic's AI assistant) when working with this repository. It opens with Claude's @path/to/import syntax (as described in Claude's best practices) to pull in AGENTS.md, so the ecosystem-neutral rules stay in one place:

@AGENTS.md

Beyond that import, CLAUDE.md carries Claude-specific and longer-form guidance that does not belong in the short entry point — the daily dev loop, the Docker serving model, and the CI/style-contract details. Ecosystem-neutral rules that every agent needs belong in AGENTS.md or ARCHITECTURE.md; keep CLAUDE.md for the rest.

Agent Skills

Agents can use repo-local skills for common v1 workflows:

  • .agents/skills/al-folio-bootstrap/SKILL.md for new site setup and safe starter customization.
  • .agents/skills/al-folio-v1-migration/SKILL.md for customized fork migration and override drift auditing.

The canonical skill files live in .agents/skills/. .codex/skills/ and .claude/skills/ are symlinks for agent-specific discovery.

Customization Agent

The Customization Agent (.github/agents/customize.agent.md) helps users customize their al-folio website. It:

  • Guides you through modifying configuration files, adding content, and customizing the theme
  • Explains technical concepts in plain language for users without coding experience
  • Applies changes directly to your repository files
  • Provides step-by-step instructions for common customization tasks

To use the customization agent, you need to have GitHub Copilot enabled in your repository. The agent can help with tasks like changing site information, updating your CV, adding publications, creating blog posts, customizing theme colors, and more.

Documentation Agent

The Documentation Agent (.github/agents/docs.agent.md) maintains the project documentation. It:

  • Updates and maintains documentation files (README.md, docs/README.md, docs/INSTALL.md, docs/CUSTOMIZE.md, docs/FAQ.md, docs/CONTRIBUTING.md)
  • Keeps documentation in sync with code changes
  • Writes clear, concise documentation for users without technical backgrounds
  • Follows documentation standards and best practices

The documentation agent is primarily intended for maintainers and contributors who are updating the project documentation.

Custom Instruction Files

To enhance GitHub Copilot's effectiveness when working with specific file types, this repository includes custom instruction files in .github/instructions/:

  • .github/copilot-instructions.md – Copilot entry point. It points at AGENTS.md (the authoritative agent guide) and lists the Copilot-specific paths and CI expectations, rather than duplicating the shared rules
  • .github/instructions/liquid-templates.instructions.md – Guidance for modifying Liquid template files (.liquid)
  • .github/instructions/yaml-configuration.instructions.md – Guidance for configuration and data files (_config.yml, _data/**/*.yml)
  • .github/instructions/bibtex-bibliography.instructions.md – Guidance for bibliography files (.bib, _bibliography/**)
  • .github/instructions/markdown-content.instructions.md – Guidance for content files across collections (_books/, _news/, _pages/, _posts/, _projects/, _teachings/)
  • .github/instructions/javascript-scripts.instructions.md – Guidance for starter JavaScript and runtime script snippets

These files help Copilot agents understand project conventions, build requirements, and development workflows without requiring codebase exploration.

Copilot Environment Setup

A GitHub Actions workflow (.github/workflows/copilot-setup-steps.yml) automatically configures the Copilot environment with required dependencies (Ruby 3.3.5, Python 3.13, Node.js, ImageMagick, nbconvert) before agent execution.

Important: Verify Agent Output

While these agents are designed to assist you, they can make mistakes or produce incorrect information. Always review and verify the output before applying it to your repository:

  • Review code and configuration changes – Check that suggested modifications are correct and fit your needs
  • Test changes locally – Before pushing to GitHub, test the changes locally (using Docker or native setup)
  • Verify syntax – Ensure any YAML, Markdown, or configuration files have correct syntax
  • Check documentation – If the agent generates documentation, review it for accuracy and clarity
  • Don't blindly apply changes – Understand what changes are being made and why
  • Run your site – After applying changes, run your site locally and verify everything works as expected

Example: If an agent suggests a BibTeX entry or configuration change, verify that the syntax is correct and matches the existing style in your repository before committing.

How to Enable Agents

GitHub Copilot agents are available to users with GitHub Copilot subscriptions. To use these agents:

  1. Ensure you have GitHub Copilot enabled for your account
  2. Open your repository in an editor with GitHub Copilot support (such as VS Code with the GitHub Copilot extension)
  3. The agents will be automatically available based on the configuration files in .github/agents/. For more information, see Using custom agents in your IDE.

For more information about GitHub Copilot agents and how to use them, see the GitHub Copilot documentation.

Issues

We use GitHub issues to track bugs and feature requests. Before submitting an issue, please make sure:

  1. You have read the FAQ section of the README and your question is NOT addressed there.
  2. You have done your best to ensure that your issue is NOT a duplicate of one of the previous issues.
  3. Your issue is either a bug (unexpected/undesirable behavior) or a feature request. If it is just a question, please ask it in the Discussions forum.

When submitting an issue, please make sure to use the appropriate template.

License

By contributing to al-folio, you agree that your contributions will be licensed under the LICENSE file in the root directory of the source tree.