Contributing to ADOS

ADOS is developed in public repositories and contributions are welcome: bug reports, fixes, features, documentation and translations. There is no contributor licence agreement; your contribution is licensed under the repository’s own licence. See Open source for the repositories and their licences.

Kinds of contribution

Bug reports. Open a GitHub issue in the repository the bug affects. Include steps to reproduce, what you expected, what happened, and your environment (OS, browser, flight controller firmware, agent version, board). Logs and screenshots help. Fixes. Small fixes can go straight to a pull request. For larger fixes, open an issue first to agree on the approach. Features. Open an issue first so the approach can be discussed before you write code. Split large features into smaller pull requests. Documentation. Pull requests to this site, READMEs and code comments are welcome. Translations. Mission Control ships 16 languages. See Translations.

Set up a repository

For how the code in each repository is organized, see Project structure. For step-by-step code changes (adding a panel, a decoder, a board), see Code recipes.

Mission Control
Drone Agent
Android GCS
MCP server
Documentation

Needs Node.js 20 or later with npm, Git, and a Chromium-based browser for WebSerial.

git clone https://github.com/altnautica/ADOSMissionControl.git
cd ADOSMissionControl
npm install
npm run demo

npm run demo starts the app at http://localhost:4000 with simulated drones; npm run dev starts it without demo data. Before you open a pull request:

npm run lint
npm test
npm run build

Needs Python 3.11 or later, a Rust toolchain and Git. A Linux board is needed to test hardware paths; ArduPilot SITL covers flight-controller work without hardware.

git clone https://github.com/altnautica/ADOSDroneAgent.git
cd ADOSDroneAgent
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Check the Python half:

pytest
ruff check .
mypy src/

The native services are a Cargo workspace under crates/:

cd crates
cargo test

Needs Android Studio, JDK 17 and the Android SDK listed in the repository README. Run on a device or emulator with Android 10 (API 29) or later.

git clone https://github.com/altnautica/ADOSAndroidGCS.git
cd ADOSAndroidGCS
./gradlew installDebug

Before you open a pull request:

./gradlew test
./gradlew lint

Needs Node.js 20 or later, Git and pnpm.

git clone https://github.com/altnautica/ADOS-MCP.git
cd ADOS-MCP
pnpm install
pnpm typecheck
pnpm lint
pnpm test
pnpm build

Needs Node.js and the Mintlify CLI.

git clone https://github.com/altnautica/Documentation.git
cd Documentation
npm i -g mint
mint dev

Run mint broken-links before you open a pull request.

ADOSExtensions holds the first-party extensions. Bug reports there are welcome; to build and publish your own extension, start with Your first plugin.

Pull requests

Fork the repository and create a branch from main.
Keep each pull request to one feature or fix.
Add or update tests for new behaviour, and run the repository’s checks listed above.
Describe what changed, why, and how you tested it. Add screenshots or a recording for UI changes.
Do not bump version numbers; maintainers handle releases.

Mission Control changes that touch the protocol layer, calibration or pre-arm checks need testing on real hardware as well as in demo mode.

Branch names

Each repository’s own CONTRIBUTING.md sets its branch scheme:

Repository	Branch names
ADOSMissionControl	`feat/<short-description>`, `fix/<short-description>`
ADOSDroneAgent	`feature/<short-description>`
ADOSAndroidGCS	A feature branch from `main`

Code style

Mission Control: TypeScript strict mode with no any; Zustand for shared state, one store per domain; Tailwind tokens instead of arbitrary values; every component correct on the dark theme. Flight controller access goes through the DroneProtocol interface only.
Drone Agent: Ruff for linting, mypy for types, Google-style docstrings.
Android GCS: the official Kotlin style, 4-space indentation, no wildcard imports, lines up to 120 characters.

Translations

Mission Control’s translation files live at locales/<code>.json in the ADOSMissionControl repository. locales/en.json is the reference.

Code	Language	Code	Language
`en`	English	`ja`	Japanese
`de`	German	`kn`	Kannada
`es`	Spanish	`ko`	Korean
`fr`	French	`mr`	Marathi
`gu`	Gujarati	`pa`	Punjabi
`hi`	Hindi	`pt`	Portuguese
`id`	Indonesian	`ta`	Tamil
`zh`	Chinese	`te`	Telugu

To improve a language, compare its file with locales/en.json, translate missing or placeholder values, and open a pull request. Use the terms pilots in that language actually use, keep labels short, and never translate parameter names such as MOT_SPIN_ARM. To add a language, copy locales/en.json to locales/<code>.json, translate it, and add the code to locales and localeNames in src/i18n.ts.

Report a security issue

Do not open a public issue for a vulnerability. Email team@altnautica.com with the details, and we will work with you on a fix and coordinated disclosure.

Code of conduct

Be respectful, constructive and specific. Harassment, discrimination and personal attacks are not tolerated. Report problems to team@altnautica.com.

Next steps

Project structure

How each repository is laid out.

Code recipes

Step-by-step recipes for common code changes.

System overview

How the parts fit together before you change them.

Community

Ask questions on Discord.

Start here

Quickstarts

First flight

Community

Kinds of contribution

Set up a repository

Pull requests

Branch names

Code style

Translations

Report a security issue

Code of conduct

Next steps

Project structure

Code recipes

System overview

Community

​Kinds of contribution

​Set up a repository

​Pull requests

​Branch names

​Code style

​Translations

​Report a security issue

​Code of conduct

​Next steps

Project structure

Code recipes

System overview

Community

Kinds of contribution

Set up a repository

Pull requests

Branch names

Code style

Translations

Report a security issue

Code of conduct

Next steps