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Contributing to Gearslip
Thanks for helping. Bug reports from real cars are the most useful thing you can send, so start there if you aren't sure where to begin.
Reporting a bug
Open an issue on GitHub and include:
- your car's make, model, and year, and whether the head unit is the original one; and
- the log from the drive. Open Logs on the phone app's home screen and tap Share log.
The log records your phone, its Android version, the Gearslip version, the head unit, and why the connection ended. Most car bugs can't be fixed without it. Head units often report only a part number, so the log can't name your car for you.
Building
You need Android Studio, or the Android SDK with JDK 21. Gradle downloads the NDK, CMake, and the speech library on the first build.
./gradlew :gearslip:assembleDebug
The APK lands at build/Gearslip-debug.apk. It installs as Gearslip Dev, next to the
regular app.
Pull requests
Work happens on the experimental branch, which merges into main at each release. Base your
branch on experimental, and open your pull request against it.
- Keep each pull request to one change, and explain the problem it solves.
- Say how you tested it: which car or head unit, which phone, and which apps.
- Code written with AI tools is welcome. Read it, test it, and stand behind it as you would your own.
- Gearslip asks for no adb, root, or Shizuku. A feature must work with ordinary Android permissions and on-device consent dialogs.
Translating
Translations happen on Weblate, not in pull requests. Pick your language, or start a new one, and translate in the browser. Weblate sends the finished work to this repository as a pull request.
Keep the tone of the English: short, plain, and friendly. Leave placeholders such as %1$s
and %1$d in place; Gearslip fills them with names and numbers. Untranslated strings show
in English, so a partial translation is still useful.
Before your first translation, Weblate asks you to accept the Contributor License Agreement. That counts as signing it.
Writing
Text that users read, such as screens, release notes, and docs, follows Strunk's The Elements of Style. In short: use the active voice, state things positively, cut needless words, and use the serial comma.
License
Gearslip is licensed under AGPL-3.0, and your contributions are too. Twink Software LLC, which owns Gearslip, also sells a commercial license, described in NOTICE.md.
Before we can merge your first pull request, you sign the Contributor License Agreement. You keep the copyright in your work, and it stays available as free software; the agreement lets us offer it under the commercial license too. A bot comments on your pull request with a link, and signing takes one click.