Contributing

Thanks for your interest. Bug reports with rdc doctor output, platform test reports, and small focused pull requests are all welcome.

Before you start

Read AGENTS.md: the design and security principles changes are reviewed against.
For anything beyond a small fix, open an issue first so we can agree on the approach. The architecture doc explains how the pieces fit.
Security problems: do not open a public issue. See SECURITY.md.
Platform reports are contributions too. If you run rdc on a platform marked untested in the README, tell us what happened, good or bad.

Development setup

git clone https://github.com/bscott/rdc && cd rdc
cargo build --release
cargo test
cargo clippy --all-targets -- -D warnings
cargo fmt --all

Build dependencies per OS are in docs/install.md. CI runs the same four commands on Linux, macOS and Windows with warnings as errors, so run them before pushing.

Trying changes locally without a second machine

./target/release/rdc serve --dev-loopback              # unauthenticated 127.0.0.1, testing only
./target/release/rdc -t http://127.0.0.1:7770 shot
./target/release/rdc -t http://127.0.0.1:7770 click 400 300

Or skip the daemon entirely with --target local, which exercises the same Desktop implementation in-process.

Trying the MCP server

printf '%s\n' \
 '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"initialize","params":{"protocolVersion":"2025-06-18","capabilities":{},"clientInfo":{"name":"probe","version":"0"}}}' \
 '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"notifications/initialized"}' \
 '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"tools/list"}' | ./target/release/rdc mcp -t local

Repository layout

Path	Contents
`src/proto.rs`	wire and domain types shared by daemon, client, CLI and MCP
`src/desktop/mod.rs`	the `Desktop` trait
`src/desktop/local/`	in-process implementation: capture, input worker, per-platform window code
`src/desktop/remote.rs`	HTTP client implementation
`src/server/`	axum daemon, whois auth middleware, routes
`src/tailscale.rs`	LocalAPI discovery per platform, CLI fallback
`src/mcp.rs`, `src/view.rs`	MCP tools and pixel↔point mapping
`src/keys.rs`	key chord grammar
`src/service/`	LaunchAgent and systemd installers
`src/doctor.rs`, `src/permissions.rs`	readiness checks and macOS TCC helpers
`scripts/macos/`	signing identity and `.app` bundling
`skills/rdc/`	the agent skill
`docs/`	user documentation

Pull request checklist

cargo fmt, cargo clippy --all-targets -- -D warnings and cargo test pass locally.
Say which platforms you actually ran on, and how (foreground, service, MCP).
If behaviour changed, update the relevant page in docs/ and, if it affects agents, skills/rdc/SKILL.md.
Add a line under Unreleased in CHANGELOG.md; it becomes the release notes.
If you verified a platform that the README marks untested, update the status table.
Commits are descriptive; one logical change per commit where practical.

Style

Keep the Desktop trait the single seam: new capabilities go there first, then to the wire API, then to the CLI and MCP. All three surfaces must stay equivalent.
No new network listeners, no shell execution, no credentials in the tree.
Prefer returning RdcError over panicking in daemon paths.
Platform-specific code goes behind cfg(target_os = …) in its own module; keep the common path compiling on all three OSes. From Linux, after rustup target add x86_64-pc-windows-gnu aarch64-apple-darwin, run cargo clippy --target <triple> --all-targets -- -D warnings for both; CI runs clippy with warnings as errors on every platform, and a lint that only fires on one of them will fail the build there.

License and sign-off

rdc is licensed under the GPL-3.0-or-later. By contributing you agree that your contributions are licensed under the same terms.

Please sign off each commit (git commit -s), which adds a Signed-off-by: line certifying the Developer Certificate of Origin: that you wrote the change or otherwise have the right to submit it under the project license.

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