* [Keep your pull requests limited to a single issue](#keep-your-pull-requests-limited-to-a-single-issue)
* [Don't mix code changes with whitespace cleanup](#dont-mix-code-changes-with-whitespace-cleanup)
* [Keep your code simple!](#keep-your-code-simple)
* [Test your changes!](#test-your-changes)
* [Write a good commit message](#write-a-good-commit-message)
## What contributions are accepted
We highly appreciate your contributions in the matter of fixing bugs and optimizing the Telegram Desktop source code and its documentation. In case of fixing the existing user experience please push to your fork and [submit a pull request][pr].
Wait for us. We try to review your pull requests as fast as possible.
If we find issues with your pull request, we may suggest some changes and improvements.
Unfortunately we **do not merge** any pull requests that have new feature implementations, translations to new languages and those which introduce any new user interface elements.
Telegram Desktop is not a standalone application but a part of [Telegram project][telegram], so all the decisions about the features, languages, user experience, user interface and the design are made inside Telegram team, often according to some roadmap which is not public.
## Sign your work
For contributions to be accepted they should be granted into the public domain. This will solve the issue if Telegram team needs to use full Telegram Desktop source code with some different license.
The sign-off is a simple line at the end of the explanation for the patch. Your signature certifies that you wrote the patch and you have the right to put it in the public domain. The rules are pretty simple: if you can certify the below:
```
Telegram Desktop Developer Certificate of Origin
By making a contribution to this project, I certify that:
(a) The contribution was created in whole by me or is based upon
previous work that, to the best of my knowledge, is in the
public domain and I have the right to put it in the public domain.
(d) I understand and agree that this project and the contribution are
public and that a record of the contribution (including all
metadata and personal information I submit with it, including my
sign-off) is maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed.
(e) I am granting this work into the public domain.
```
Then you just add a line to every git commit message that states:
Signed-off-by: Random J Developer <random@developer.example.org> (github: rndjdev_github)
Replacing Random Developer’s details with your name, email address and GitHub username.
Telegram Desktop is advancing quickly. It is therefore critical that you pull upstream changes into your fork on a regular basis. Nothing is worse than putting in a days of hard work into a pull request only to have it rejected because it has diverged too far from upstram.
We want to improve Telegram Desktop with your contributions. But we also want to provide a stable experience for our users and the community. Follow these rules and you should succeed without a problem!
### Keep your pull requests limited to a single issue
Pull requests should be as small/atomic as possible. Large, wide-sweeping changes in a pull request will be **rejected**, with comments to isolate the specific code in your pull request. Some examples:
* If you are making spelling corrections in the docs, don't modify other files.
* If you are adding new functions don't '*cleanup*' unrelated functions. That cleanup belongs in another pull request.
### Don't mix code changes with whitespace cleanup
If you change two lines of code and correct 200 lines of whitespace issues in a file the diff on that pull request is functionally unreadable and will be **rejected**. Whitespace cleanups need to be in their own pull request.
Before you submit a pull request, please test your changes. Verify that Telegram Desktop still works and your changes don't cause other issue or crashes.
