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Contributing

Jacquard.NET is open source under Apache 2.0 and welcomes contributions. This page covers how to get involved — for the full details, see CONTRIBUTING.md in the repo root.

Where to start​

Good first issues: Look for issues labeled good-first-issue on GitHub. These are scoped, well-defined tasks that don't require deep framework knowledge.

Areas of need:

  • Model providers — Ollama native provider, Azure OpenAI improvements, Cohere, Mistral
  • Built-in tools — more tools in StrandsAgents.Tools (web search, database query, vector store)
  • Samples — real-world examples showing production patterns
  • Documentation — tutorials, how-to guides, concept explanations
  • Testing — unit tests, integration tests, edge case coverage

How to submit a PR​

  1. Fork the repository on GitHub
  2. Branch from main — use a descriptive name like feature/ollama-model or fix/streaming-cancel
  3. Implement your change, following the existing code style (see Directory.Build.props for shared settings)
  4. Test — run dotnet build and dotnet test to make sure everything passes. TreatWarningsAsErrors is enabled, so fix any warnings.
  5. Submit a pull request with a clear description of what changed and why

Code style notes​

  • All public types are sealed unless inheritance is required
  • Data types are record; mutable state uses classes
  • ConfigureAwait(false) on every await in library code
  • System.Text.Json only — no Newtonsoft
  • No runtime reflection — tool schemas are generated at compile time

What's needed most​

In rough priority order:

  1. Additional model providers — especially Ollama (local development), Cohere, and Mistral. The IModel interface is straightforward to implement.
  2. More built-in tools — the StrandsAgents.Tools package currently has calculator, file read/write, and HTTP request. Web search, SQL query, and vector store tools would be valuable.
  3. Real-world samples — production-style examples that go beyond "hello world". Think: RAG pipelines, customer service bots, code generation agents, data analysis workflows.
  4. Documentation improvements — better explanations, more tutorials, API reference coverage.

Larger proposals​

For significant changes — new packages, architectural shifts, breaking API changes — open a GitHub Discussion first. This lets the community weigh in before you invest time in implementation.

Examples of "open a discussion first":

  • Adding a new top-level NuGet package
  • Changing the IModel or ITool interfaces
  • New orchestration patterns in StrandsAgents.MultiAgent
  • Changes to the source generator's output

Running the project locally​

# Build everything
dotnet build Jacquard.sln --configuration Release

# Run unit tests
dotnet test tests/StrandsAgents.Core.Tests --configuration Release
dotnet test tests/StrandsAgents.Runtime.Tests --configuration Release

# Run a sample
dotnet run --project samples/CliAgent

Integration tests require AWS credentials and STRANDS_INTEGRATION_TESTS=true:

STRANDS_INTEGRATION_TESTS=true dotnet test tests/StrandsAgents.Integration.Tests

License​

All contributions are licensed under Apache 2.0, the same license as the project.