Contributing to Dew

Thank you for your interest in contributing! This guide covers everything you need to get set up and start making changes.

Prerequisites

Dart SDK ^3.11.4 — verify with dart --version
Melos (optional, for workspace scripts) — dart pub global activate melos

Clone & setup

git clone https://github.com/artificery-dev/dew.git
cd dew
dart pub get

Running the CLI locally

dart run packages/cli/bin/dew.dart kanban --help

Running tests

dart test packages/core/test/
dart test packages/kanban/test/
dart test packages/mcp/test/

Linting and formatting

dart analyze
dart format .

Fix any analysis warnings before opening a PR. The project uses the rules defined in analysis_options.yaml.

Branch strategy

Branch	Purpose
`main`	Stable, released code. Only merged into from `develop`.
`develop`	Integration branch. All PRs target this branch.
`feat/*`	Feature branches cut from `develop`.
`fix/*`	Bug-fix branches cut from `develop`.

Workflow:

Cut a feature branch from develop: git checkout -b feat/my-feature develop
Make your changes, add tests, run dart analyze && dart format .
Open a PR targeting develop
Releases are prepared on develop and merged to main

Adding a new kanban command

Follow these three steps to add a command that is simultaneously a CLI subcommand and an MCP tool:

1. Create the command class

Create packages/kanban/lib/src/commands/my_command.dart implementing DewToolCommand:

import 'package:args/command_runner.dart';
import 'package:dew_core/dew_core.dart';

class MyCommand extends DewCommand with DewToolCommand {
  @override
  final String name = 'my-command';

  @override
  final String description = 'Does something useful.';

  MyCommand() {
    argParser.addOption('id', mandatory: true, help: 'Ticket ID.');
  }

  @override
  Future<void> run() async {
    final id = argResults!['id'] as String;
    // implementation
  }
}

The DewToolCommand mixin automatically derives the MCP tool JSON Schema from the ArgParser — no extra registration work needed.

2. Register in the kanban base

Add your command in packages/kanban/lib/src/dew_kanban_base.dart alongside the existing commands:

addSubcommand(MyCommand());

3. Add tests

Add tests in packages/kanban/test/my_command_test.dart. Use the existing command tests as a reference for how to set up a ProjectContext with an in-memory filesystem.

dart test packages/kanban/test/my_command_test.dart

Project structure

packages/
├── cli/       — Entry point; wires all packages together
├── core/      — DewCommand, DewToolCommand, CommandRegistry, DewConfig
├── kanban/    — All kanban commands and storage logic
└── mcp/       — MCP server; reads tools from CommandRegistry

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