Contributing to the OpenFeature project

March 8, 2026 ยท View on GitHub

Development

You can contribute to this project from a Windows, macOS or Linux machine.

On all platforms, the minimum requirements are:

  • Git client and command line tools.
  • Ruby 3.4 or higher

Pull Request

All contributions to the OpenFeature project are welcome via GitHub pull requests.

To create a new PR, you will need to first fork the GitHub repository and clone upstream.

git clone https://github.com/open-feature/ruby-sdk.git openfeature-ruby-sdk

Navigate to the repository folder

cd openfeature-ruby-sdk

Add your fork as an origin

git remote add fork https://github.com/YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/ruby-sdk.git

To start working on a new feature or bugfix, create a new branch and start working on it.

git checkout -b feat/NAME_OF_FEATURE
# Make your changes
git commit -s
git push fork feat/NAME_OF_FEATURE

Open a pull request against the main ruby-sdk repository.

Running checks locally

Unit tests

To run unit tests and other checks:

bundle exec rake

Spec conformance tests (Gherkin)

The project includes Gherkin-based conformance tests that verify compliance with the OpenFeature specification:

bundle exec cucumber

Linting

This project uses Standard Ruby for code style enforcement. Run bundle exec standardrb to check, or bundle exec standardrb --fix to auto-fix. Do not run bundle exec rubocop directly, as a stale RuboCop server may apply different rules.

How to Receive Comments

  • If the PR is not ready for review, please mark it as draft.
  • Make sure all required CI checks are clear.
  • Submit small, focused PRs addressing a single concern/issue.
  • Make sure the PR title reflects the contribution.
  • Write a summary that helps understand the change.
  • Include usage examples in the summary, where applicable.

How to Get PRs Merged

A PR is considered to be ready to merge when:

  • Major feedbacks are resolved.
  • It has been open for review for at least one working day. This gives people reasonable time to review.
  • Trivial change (typo, cosmetic, doc, etc.) doesn't have to wait for one day.
  • Urgent fix can take exception as long as it has been actively communicated.

Any Maintainer can merge the PR once it is ready to merge. Note, that some PRs may not be merged immediately if the repo is in the process of a release and the maintainers decided to defer the PR to the next release train.

If a PR has been stuck (e.g. there are lots of debates and people couldn't agree on each other), the owner should try to get people aligned by:

  • Consolidating the perspectives and putting a summary in the PR. It is recommended to add a link into the PR description, which points to a comment with a summary in the PR conversation.
  • Tagging subdomain experts (by looking at the change history) in the PR asking for suggestion.
  • Reaching out to more people on the CNCF OpenFeature Slack channel.
  • Stepping back to see if it makes sense to narrow down the scope of the PR or split it up.
  • If none of the above worked and the PR has been stuck for more than 2 weeks, the owner should bring it to the OpenFeatures meeting.

Automated Changelog

Each time a release is published the changelogs will be generated automatically using release-please.

Design Choices

As with other OpenFeature SDKs, ruby-sdk follows the openfeature-specification.