Contributing to the Open Character Format

Thanks for helping. Start with AGENTS.md: it lists where things live, the commands, and the rules. This file covers what every contribution needs.

Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO)

Every commit must be signed off, confirming you wrote it or otherwise have the right to submit it under the project’s licenses, per the Developer Certificate of Origin:

git commit -s -m "Add orc-2e longsword"

This adds a Signed-off-by: Your Name <you@example.com> line. There is no contributor license agreement: you keep your copyright and license your contribution under the licenses below.

Licenses

• Code, spec, schemas and tests: Apache 2.0.
• Content packs: every pack declares its license in pack.yaml. Original packs use CC0-1.0 (see packs/LICENSE). Packs derived from licensed material keep that license and carry its required credit line (CC-BY and ORC packs must have one) and any other notices it requires in notices (ORC packs must have orc, reserved-material and expressly-designated; OGL packs ogl-license and section-15). Packs for games that aren’t openly licensed may only carry mechanics (license: mechanics-only): no rules text, flavor text or logos; the contributors’ own work in them is CC0, and they carry any credit or notices their source asks for.
• Every pack has a LICENSE file with its terms, credit and notices, and its package.json names it (SEE LICENSE IN LICENSE, or the SPDX identifier for CC-BY packs); the bundle’s LICENSE repeats every pack’s credit and notices. pnpm test checks both against pack.yaml.
• Don’t submit copyrighted text you don’t have the right to share. Translating copyrighted text is still copying it.

Making a change

1. Read the relevant spec chapters (packages/spec/docs/).
2. Make the change; one content item per file.
3. Run pnpm check (lint, typecheck, tests, pnpm validate), and pnpm release and pnpm build:website when you change packs, scripts or docs.
4. Open a pull request. CODEOWNERS routes review to the spec’s or the game’s maintainers.

Proposing a spec change

Spec changes start as a GitHub issue, before any pull request. Describe:

• What you were modeling: the game, the rule, and where it appears.
• What’s missing: what the format can’t express, or expresses badly.
• Your workaround, if you found one, and why it falls short.
• Options: the changes you see, with their trade-offs.

Open questions and ideas that aren’t a concrete gap yet go in GitHub Discussions. Once the maintainers agree on a change, it lands as a pull request that updates the spec docs, schemas, conformance tests and reference engine together.

Takedowns

If you are a rights holder and believe material in this repository infringes your rights, open an issue or email info@pixelqueue.io; the material will be reviewed and removed where appropriate.

Code of conduct

This project follows the Contributor Covenant.