Contributing¶

Thank you for your interest in contributing to NovaPhy!

Development Setup¶

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/Novaphy/NovaPhy.git
cd NovaPhy

Create the conda environment:

conda env create -f environment.yml
conda activate novaphy

Install in development mode:

$env:CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE="C:/path/to/vcpkg/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake"
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Code Conventions¶

C++¶

C++20 standard
float32 only — never use double; use Eigen *f types
#pragma once for include guards
Namespace: novaphy
Classes: PascalCase, functions: snake_case, private members: trailing_underscore_
Spatial algebra: [angular; linear] (Featherstone convention)

Python¶

PEP 8 style
Type hints where practical

Testing¶

Every new Python-exposed feature must have a corresponding test in tests/python/.

# Run full test suite
pytest tests/python/ -v

# Run specific test file
pytest tests/python/test_collision.py -v

Writing Tests¶

Use analytical comparisons for physics validation
Float32 tolerance: pytest.approx(expected, rel=1e-4)
Keep tests independent — no shared mutable state
Name files test_<module>.py, functions test_<behavior>

Code Quality¶

Formatting¶

# Check C++ formatting
find include/novaphy src python/bindings -name "*.h" -o -name "*.cpp" | xargs clang-format --dry-run --Werror

# Auto-fix
find include/novaphy src python/bindings -name "*.h" -o -name "*.cpp" | xargs clang-format -i

# Python linting
ruff check python/ tests/ demos/ --select=E,W,F,I

Documentation¶

Documentation is built with MkDocs Material and deployed to GitHub Pages.

# Install docs dependencies
pip install mkdocs-material pymdown-extensions mkdocs-autorefs

# Serve locally
mkdocs serve

# Build
mkdocs build

Pull Request Process¶

Create a feature branch from main
Make your changes with tests
Ensure all tests pass: pytest tests/python/ -v
Push and create a PR against main
CI will run on Ubuntu and Windows

License¶

By contributing, you agree that your contributions will be licensed under the MIT License.