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Contributing to Lance-Ray

Thank you for your interest in contributing to Lance-Ray! This document provides guidelines and instructions for contributing to the project.

Prerequisites

  • Python >= 3.10
  • UV package manager
  • Git

Setting Up Your Development Environment

  1. Fork and clone the repository
# Fork the repository on GitHub, then clone your fork
git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/lance-ray.git
cd lance-ray
  1. Install UV (if not already installed)
pip install uv
  1. Install the project in development mode
# Install with all development dependencies
uv pip install -e ".[dev]"

# To work on documentation, also install docs dependencies
uv pip install -e ".[dev,docs]"

Running Tests

Run the test suite to ensure everything is working:

# Run all tests
uv run pytest

# Run with coverage report
uv run pytest --cov=lance_ray

# Run specific test file
uv run pytest tests/test_basic_read_write.py -vv

Check Styles

We use ruff for both linting and formatting:

# Format code
uv run ruff format lance_ray/ tests/ examples/

# Check linting
uv run ruff check lance_ray/ tests/ examples/

# Fix linting issues automatically
uv run ruff check --fix lance_ray/ tests/ examples/

Building Documentation Locally

# Serve documentation locally
cd docs
uv run mkdocs serve

# Documentation will be available at http://localhost:8000

Release Process

This section describes the CI/CD workflows for automated version management, releases, and publishing.

Version Scheme

  • Stable releases: X.Y.Z (e.g., 1.2.3)
  • Preview releases: X.Y.Z-beta.N (e.g., 1.2.3-beta.1)

Creating a Release

  1. Create Release Draft
  2. Go to Actions → "Create Release"
  3. Select parameters:
    • Release type (major/minor/patch)
    • Release channel (stable/preview)
    • Dry run (test without pushing)

  4. Run workflow (creates a draft release)

  5. Review and Publish

  6. Go to the Releases page to review the draft
  7. Edit release notes if needed
  8. Click "Publish release" to:
    • For stable releases: Trigger automatic PyPI publishing
    • For preview releases: Create a beta release (not published to PyPI)