Development Guide

August 12, 2026 · View on GitHub

Entry point for VT Code contributor workflows.

Getting Started

Development Setup - Canonical local setup and quality loop.
Testing Guide - Test commands, structure, and benchmark coverage.
C++ Core Guidelines Adoption - Policy for any C/C++ code introduced in this repository.
CI/CD - Pipeline behavior and verification stages.
Cross Compilation - Multi-target build workflows.
Fuzzing - cargo-fuzz usage and parser hardening.

Process Hardening - Runtime hardening controls.
Execution Policy - Command policy model.
Command Security Model - Command validation and threat model.
Security Guide - Process sandbox boundaries, MCP inheritance, and provider diagnostic redaction.
Runtime Guidance - Boundary between compiled universal behavior and dynamic project instructions.
vtcode Binary Gotchas - Binary startup, runloop recovery, allocator, and request-assembly invariants.
AI Tool Surface Migration - Breaking-change notes for the Codex-style default tools.

Performance Guide - Profiling and optimization workflow.
Rust Performance Principles - Rust hot-path and I/O guidance.
Performance Hasher Policy - rustc_hash usage policy.
Async Performance Audit - Async architecture performance findings.
Session Event Persistence - Canonical session events, exporter boundaries, retention, and verification.

Asset Synchronization - Embedded asset maintenance.
AI Tool Surface Eval Report - Executable tool-surface cases, suite validation, and the baseline comparison format.
Changelog Generation - git-cliff-based changelog updates.
Desire Paths - Known architecture pressure points.
TUI-Only Refactoring Notes - Historical refactor details.
Tool Summary Display - Compact and expanded tool transition summaries, configuration, and testing boundaries.
First-party debt scan - Detect actionable debt markers while excluding generated and fixture content.