Contributing to FormLens

May 19, 2026 · View on GitHub

Thanks for your interest in contributing to FormLens.

FormLens is currently in early alpha and focused on validating the MVP for Angular Reactive Forms inspection.

Current focus

Right now, the project is prioritizing:

  • real-world feedback from Angular developers
  • issues found in practical usage
  • improvements to core inspection workflows
  • API stability before broader adoption

Good ways to contribute

The most helpful contributions right now are:

  • bug reports with reproduction steps
  • feedback on developer experience
  • suggestions based on real Angular forms usage
  • improvements to docs and setup clarity
  • targeted fixes in the MVP scope

Before opening a PR

Please:

  1. Check existing issues first.
  2. Keep the scope focused.
  3. Avoid bundling unrelated changes in one PR.
  4. Prefer improvements that support the current MVP direction.

What is in scope

Contributions are welcome for:

  • Reactive Forms inspection improvements
  • demo app improvements
  • docs fixes
  • test coverage for current features
  • performance or stability fixes

What is not a priority right now

These areas are not the current focus:

  • template-driven forms
  • enterprise integrations
  • analytics or telemetry
  • remote tooling
  • major API expansion without validation
  • large visual redesigns disconnected from MVP needs

Development flow

Suggested flow:

  1. Fork the repository.
  2. Create a branch from main.
  3. Make a focused change.
  4. Run build and tests.
  5. Open a pull request with context and screenshots when relevant.

Local validation commands

npm install
npm run build:lib
ng test formlens
npm run pack:lib

Use npm pack to validate the package locally before any release.

Pull request notes

A good PR should include:

  • a clear problem statement
  • what changed
  • why the change is useful
  • screenshots or demo notes for UI changes
  • any known limitations

Reporting issues

When opening an issue, include:

  • Angular version
  • how the form is structured
  • expected behavior
  • actual behavior
  • reproduction steps
  • screenshots if the issue is visual

Code expectations

Please aim for:

  • small, readable changes
  • consistency with the current codebase
  • minimal public API growth
  • no unnecessary abstractions
  • tests for meaningful core behavior changes

Feedback

At this stage, product feedback is as valuable as code contributions.

If FormLens helped or failed in a real Angular form debugging scenario, that feedback is especially useful.

Troubleshooting

Changes to the lib not reflected after reinstall? Run rm -rf .angular/cache in the consumer project before ng serve.

NG0600 error on Angular 17? This happens when a signal is written inside a reactive context. Make sure effect() uses allowSignalWrites: true where needed. This was fixed in 0.1.0-alpha.2 for the core store — if you are seeing it in your own code, the same pattern applies.