Contributing¶

Thank you for your interest in improving btorch! This page covers the basics of getting set up and submitting changes.

Development Setup¶

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/Criticality-Cognitive-Computation-Lab/btorch.git
cd btorch

1. Install development dependencies

pip install -e ".[dev]"

1. Install pre-commit hooks

pre-commit install --install-hooks

Running Checks¶

Before opening a pull request, run the following checks:

# Lint
ruff check .

# Tests
pytest tests

# Docs build
python scripts/docs.py build-all

For faster feedback, run targeted subsets:

pytest tests/models -k neuron
pytest tests/connectome
pytest tests/visualisation

Code Style¶

• Match existing module structure and naming.
• Use modern Python type annotations (|, list, dict).
• Use jaxtyping for tensor shapes where it clarifies intent.
• Keep lines within 88 characters.
• Use Google-style docstrings.
• Write comments and docstrings in English.

Documentation¶

• Update docs/ for any user-facing API changes.
• Update README.md for installation or workflow changes.
• New API pages should use mkdocstrings (btorch.module.path) rather than hand-written signatures.

Pull Request Workflow¶

1. Create a feature branch from main.
2. Make focused, atomic commits.
3. Ensure all checks pass.
4. Open a PR with a clear description of the change and its motivation.

Questions?¶

Open a GitHub Discussion or check the FAQ.