Contributing to A-Coder

Debian (Ubuntu, etc): sudo apt-get install build-essential g++ libx11-dev libxkbfile-dev libsecret-1-dev libkrb5-dev python-is-python3
Red Hat (Fedora, etc): sudo dnf install @development-tools gcc gcc-c++ make libsecret-devel krb5-devel libX11-devel libxkbfile-devel
SUSE (openSUSE, etc): sudo zypper install patterns-devel-C-C++-devel_C_C++ krb5-devel libsecret-devel libxkbfile-devel libX11-devel
Others: see How to Contribute

Developer Mode Instructions

Here's how to start changing A-Coder's code. These steps cover everything from cloning to opening a Developer Mode window where you can test your updates.

git clone https://github.com/hamishfromatech/A-Coder to clone the repo
npm install to install all dependencies
Start the build watchers:
- Windows/Linux: Press Ctrl+Shift+B
- Mac: Press Cmd+Shift+B
- Or run npm run watch from terminal
- Wait for compilation to complete (watch-client and watch-extensions)
Launch the app:
- Mac/Linux: ./scripts/code.sh
- Windows: ./scripts/code.bat
Reload changes:
- Press Cmd+R (Mac) or Ctrl+R (Windows/Linux) in the window to reload
- Or press Cmd+Shift+P (Mac) / Ctrl+Shift+P (Windows/Linux) and select "Reload Window"
- React changes require rebuilding: npm run buildreact then reload

Optional: Add flags --user-data-dir ./.tmp/user-data --extensions-dir ./.tmp/extensions to reset IDE changes by deleting the .tmp folder.

If you get any errors, scroll down for common fixes.

Common Fixes

Make sure you followed the prerequisite steps above.
Make sure you have Node version 22 (the version in .nvmrc). Use nvm: run nvm install, followed by nvm use to install the version in .nvmrc locally.
Make sure the path to your A-Coder folder does not have any spaces in it.
If you get "TypeError: Failed to fetch dynamically imported module", make sure all imports end with .js.
If you get an error with React, try running NODE_OPTIONS="--max-old-space-size=8192" npm run buildreact.
If you see missing styles, wait a few seconds and then reload.
If you get errors like npm error libtool: error: unrecognised option: '-static', when running ./scripts/code.sh, make sure you have GNU libtool instead of BSD libtool (BSD is the default in macos)
If you get errors like The SUID sandbox helper binary was found, but is not configured correctly when running ./scripts/code.sh, run sudo chown root:root .build/electron/chrome-sandbox && sudo chmod 4755 .build/electron/chrome-sandbox and then run ./scripts/code.sh again.
If you get any other questions, feel free to submit an issue.

Building from Terminal

To build from the terminal instead of from inside VSCode, run npm run watch. The build is done when you see:

[watch-extensions] Finished compilation extensions with 0 errors
[watch-client    ] Finished compilation with 0 errors

Distributing

A-Coder is distributed via releases. The build pipeline is a fork of VSCodium. See the void-builder repo for build instructions.

Building a Local Executable

Not recommended - use Developer Mode instead. If you still need a local build:

# macOS
npm run gulp vscode-darwin-arm64    # Apple Silicon
npm run gulp vscode-darwin-x64      # Intel

# Windows
npm run gulp vscode-win32-x64
npm run gulp vscode-win32-arm64

# Linux
npm run gulp vscode-linux-x64
npm run gulp vscode-linux-arm64

Output is created in a folder outside the repo (e.g., ../VSCode-darwin-arm64/).

Pull Request Guidelines

Please submit a pull request once you've made a change.
No need to submit an Issue unless you're creating a new feature that might involve multiple PRs.
Please don't use AI to write your PR 🙂