rea/CONTRIBUTING.md

Contributing to REA

REA welcomes focused bug fixes, documentation improvements, tests, and reverse-engineering workflow enhancements. Open an issue before a large contract or architecture change so its scope can be agreed before implementation.

Development setup

REA development requires Node.js 24.18.x and npm 11.16.x. Real-Hopper verification additionally requires either macOS 12+ or an officially supported Linux host (Ubuntu 24.04+, Fedora 41+, or 64-bit Arch) and an installed Hopper application. Linux demo verification uses its own private Xvfb display and does not require a desktop session. Run nvm use before installing dependencies.

npm ci
npm run rebuild:native # only when the packaged PTY binary is incompatible
npm run build
npm test

Keep dependencies flowing inward through the existing domain, contracts, provider, application, server, and adapter layers. Parse unknown values at process and protocol boundaries, model expected failures with Result, and preserve the 33 direct, 10 enhanced, 5 native, 2 artifact, 2 browser, and 18 session tools (70 total) unless a deliberate contract change updates every verifier and snapshot.

Before submitting a pull request, run:

npm run check
npm run verify:package
npm pack --dry-run

npm install prepares the Husky pre-commit hook. Commits format and lint staged files with lint-staged, then typecheck the complete project. The normal test and CI coverage runs enforce the thresholds in vitest.config.ts; npm run lint:dead rejects unused files, exports, and dependencies.

Set REA_LOG_LEVEL to trace, debug, info, warn, error, fatal, or silent to control structured JSON diagnostics. MCP mode defaults to info and always writes logs to stderr so the stdio protocol remains intact. One-shot CLI logging is opt-in and writes to stdout when a level is configured, preserving machine-readable command output by default. Request arguments, bridge authentication tokens, and environment data are redacted.

Changes that claim real Hopper behavior must also be tested against two distinct binaries:

HOPPER_TARGET_PATH=/path/to/target-a \
HOPPER_SECOND_TARGET_PATH=/path/to/distinct-target-b \
npm run verify:hopper

On a self-hosted Linux runner with the setup-installed Xvfb dependencies, use:

HOPPER_TARGET_PATH=/path/to/target-a \
HOPPER_SECOND_TARGET_PATH=/path/to/distinct-target-b \
npm run verify:hopper:linux

The macOS and Linux real-Hopper workflows remain separate so a successful mock or package test cannot be reported as platform-runtime proof. Pull requests changing setup, launch, bridge, or Hopper behavior must state which real workflows ran and why either workflow was unavailable.

Describe the behavior change and verification performed in the pull request. Never commit binaries, Hopper documents, credentials, dist/, node_modules/, or local planning artifacts.

Maintainer release checklist

Run the full checks, isolated package verifier, package dry run, and two-target real-Hopper verifier described above. Build a local tarball and exercise the executable through the package boundary:

npm pack
npm exec --yes --package ./morluto-rea-0.1.0.tgz -- rea --help

Publish the public package:

npm publish --access public

After npm registry propagation, verify the published CLI and connect a beta.3 MCP client to the published server to confirm all 70 tools:

npx -y rea-agents --help
npx -y rea-agents doctor
npx -y rea-agents setup --yes
npx -y rea-agents mcp