mempalace--mempalace/website/reference/contributing.md

Contributing

PRs welcome. MemPalace is open source and we welcome contributions of all sizes — from typo fixes to new features.

Getting Started

git clone https://github.com/MemPalace/mempalace.git
cd mempalace

# Recommended: uv (https://docs.astral.sh/uv/) manages the venv for you
uv sync --extra dev

# Or with pip in your own venv:
# pip install -e ".[dev]"

Running Tests

uv run pytest tests/ -v

All tests must pass before submitting a PR. Tests should run without API keys or network access.

Running Benchmarks

# Quick test (20 questions, ~30 seconds)
uv run python benchmarks/longmemeval_bench.py /path/to/longmemeval_s_cleaned.json --limit 20

# Full benchmark (500 questions, ~5 minutes)
uv run python benchmarks/longmemeval_bench.py /path/to/longmemeval_s_cleaned.json

See Benchmarks for data download instructions.

PR Guidelines

1. Fork the repo and create a feature branch: git checkout -b feat/my-thing
2. Write your code
3. Add or update tests if applicable
4. Run uv run pytest tests/ -v — everything must pass
5. Commit with clear conventional commits:
   • feat: add Notion export format
   • fix: handle empty transcript files
   • docs: update MCP tool descriptions
   • bench: add LoCoMo turn-level metrics
6. Push to your fork and open a PR against main

Code Style

• Formatting: Ruff with 100-char line limit
• Naming: snake_case for functions/variables, PascalCase for classes
• Docstrings: on all modules and public functions
• Type hints: where they improve readability
• Dependencies: minimize — ChromaDB + PyYAML only. Don't add new deps without discussion.

Good First Issues

Check the Issues tab:

• New chat formats — add import support for Cursor, Copilot, or other AI tool exports
• Room detection — improve pattern matching in room_detector_local.py
• Tests — increase coverage, especially for knowledge_graph.py and palace_graph.py
• Entity detection — better name disambiguation in entity_detector.py
• Docs — improve examples, add tutorials

Architecture Decisions

If you're planning a significant change, open an issue first. Key principles:

• Verbatim first — never summarize user content. Store exact words.
• Local first — everything runs on the user's machine. No cloud dependencies.
• Zero API by default — core features must work without any API key.
• Palace structure is scoping, not magic — wings, halls, and rooms act as metadata filters in the underlying vector store. They make scoping predictable when a palace holds many unrelated projects; they are not a novel retrieval mechanism.

Community

• Discord
• GitHub Issues — bug reports and feature requests
• GitHub Discussions — questions and ideas

License

MIT — your contributions will be released under the same license.