Contributing

VirtEngine is written in Go and licensed Apache 2.0. Contributions are welcome — whether that means providing feedback, testing existing and new features, or hacking on the source.

Before you start

• Read CONTRIBUTING.md in the repository — it is the authoritative guide to becoming a contributor.
• Set up the development environment and make sure make virtengine builds cleanly for you.
• The repository ships active development from main; release automation and version helpers exist for tagged releases.

Licensing and patents

Know what you're contributing to

The project is Apache 2.0, but certain methods, processes, and system architectures implemented in the codebase are protected by patent claims, including patent AU2024203136B2. The Apache 2.0 license grants a patent license only to the extent of the contributions made by the patent holder to the project. For questions regarding patent licensing, contact the project maintainers.

Good first contribution surfaces

Area	Why it’s approachable
Module tests (x/<module>/**_test.go)	Well-established patterns; high review confidence
Documentation (docs/, _docs/)	The repo maintains extensive in-tree docs with standards (docs/AGENTS_STANDARDS.md)
Economics simulations (pkg/economics/)	Self-contained, thoroughly unit-tested framework
CLI spec validation	Spec formats are versioned and documented (docs/hpc-cli-specs.md)
SDK / portal workspaces	Standard pnpm TypeScript projects

Quality expectations

• Tests accompany behavior changes; the repository runs a quality gate on pushes to main (see the badge in the README).
• Keep changes deterministic — this is consensus code; nondeterminism across platforms is a chain-halting bug class.
• Sensitive areas (settlement, escrow, VEID, encryption) receive correspondingly deeper review; expect it and write for it.

Related projects

• Bosun — the AI agent orchestrator used in VirtEngine development.
• The protocol’s lineage includes source derived from the Akash Network marketplace; understanding upstream Cosmos SDK and CometBFT conventions will make your contributions land faster.