CONTRIBUTING.md

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# Contribute to smolagents

Everyone is welcome to contribute, and we value everybody's contribution. Code
contributions are not the only way to help the community. Answering questions, helping
others, and improving the documentation are also immensely valuable.

It also helps us if you spread the word! Reference the library in blog posts
about the awesome projects it made possible, shout out on Twitter every time it has
helped you, or simply ⭐️ the repository to say thank you.

However you choose to contribute, please be mindful and respect our
[code of conduct](https://github.com/huggingface/smolagents/blob/main/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md).

**This guide was heavily inspired by the awesome [scikit-learn guide to contributing](https://github.com/scikit-learn/scikit-learn/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md).**

## Ways to contribute

There are several ways you can contribute to smolagents.

* Submit issues related to bugs or desired new features.
* Contribute to the examples or to the documentation.
* Fix outstanding issues with the existing code.

> All contributions are equally valuable to the community. 🥰

## Submitting a bug-related issue or feature request

At any moment, feel welcome to open an issue, citing your exact error traces and package versions if it's a bug.
It's often even better to open a PR with your proposed fixes/changes!

Do your best to follow these guidelines when submitting a bug-related issue or a feature
request. It will make it easier for us to come back to you quickly and with good
feedback.

### Did you find a bug?

The smolagents library is robust and reliable thanks to users who report the problems they encounter.

Before you report an issue, we would really appreciate it if you could **make sure the bug was not
already reported** (use the search bar on GitHub under Issues). Your issue should also be related to bugs in the 
library itself, and not your code. 

Once you've confirmed the bug hasn't already been reported, please include the following information in your issue so 
we can quickly resolve it:

* Your **OS type and version**, as well as your environment versions (versions of rust, python, and dependencies).
* A short, self-contained, code snippet that allows us to reproduce the bug.
* The *full* traceback if an exception is raised.
* Attach any other additional information, like screenshots, you think may help.

### Do you want a new feature?

If there is a new feature you'd like to see in smolagents, please open an issue and describe:

1. What is the *motivation* behind this feature? Is it related to a problem or frustration with the library? Is it 
   a feature related to something you need for a project? Is it something you worked on and think it could benefit 
   the community?

   Whatever it is, we'd love to hear about it!

2. Describe your requested feature in as much detail as possible. The more you can tell us about it, the better 
   we'll be able to help you.
3. Provide a *code snippet* that demonstrates the feature's usage.
4. If the feature is related to a paper, please include a link.

If your issue is well written we're already 80% of the way there by the time you create it.

## Do you want to add documentation?

We're always looking for improvements to the documentation that make it more clear and accurate. Please let us know 
how the documentation can be improved such as typos and any content that is missing, unclear or inaccurate. We'll be 
happy to make the changes or help you make a contribution if you're interested!

## Fixing outstanding issues

If you notice an issue with the existing code and have a fix in mind, feel free to [start contributing](https://docs.github.com/en/pull-requests/collaborating-with-pull-requests/proposing-changes-to-your-work-with-pull-requests/creating-a-pull-request) and open
a Pull Request!

### Making code changes

To install dev dependencies, run:
```
pip install -e ".[dev]"
```

When making changes to the codebase, please check that it follows the repo's code quality requirements by running:
To check code quality of the source code:
```
make quality
```

If the checks fail, you can run the formatter with:
```
make style
```

And commit the changes.

To run tests locally, run this command:
```bash
make test
```
</details>

## I want to become a maintainer of the project. How do I get there?

smolagents is a project led and managed by Hugging Face. We are more than
happy to have motivated individuals from other organizations join us as maintainers with the goal of helping smolagents
make a dent in the world of Agents.

If you are such an individual (or organization), please reach out to us and let's collaborate.