Your First Contribution

Audiences: Contributor

This tutorial walks through making your first contribution to BluemeOps - from understanding the codebase to submitting a pull request.

Prerequisites

Before contributing, you’ll need:

Tooling Setup

The repo includes a Brewfile and mise.toml for easy setup, but these are optional - install the tools however you prefer.

Required Tools

  • tea - Gitea/Forgejo CLI for creating PRs
  • argocd - ArgoCD CLI for deployments
  • pre-commit - Git hooks for validation

Using Brewfile (Optional)

brew bundle  # installs tea, argocd, mise, etc.

Using Mise (Optional)

Mise manages language toolchains and runs tasks:

mise install  # installs Python, Node.js, etc. from mise.toml

Pre-commit Hooks

Pre-commit hooks validate changes on git commit:

pre-commit install
pre-commit run --all-files  # verify setup

All hooks should pass on a fresh clone.

Understanding the Codebase

BlumeOps manages infrastructure through three main systems:

SystemDirectoryWhat It Manages
Ansibleansible/Services running directly on indri
ArgoCDargocd/Kubernetes services in the cluster
Pulumipulumi/Tailscale ACLs and DNS

Most contributions involve either Ansible roles or ArgoCD manifests.

The Contribution Workflow

1. Clone and Branch

git clone ssh://git@forge.ops.eblu.me:2222/eblume/blumeops.git
cd blumeops
git checkout -b feature/your-change-name

2. Make Your Changes

Depending on what you’re changing:

For Kubernetes services:

  • Edit manifests in argocd/manifests/<service>/
  • Or create new Application in argocd/apps/
  • For new apps, set targetRevision to your feature branch for testing
  • For existing apps, you’ll need to temporarily change the revision via argocd app set

For Indri services:

  • Edit or create roles in ansible/roles/
  • Update ansible/playbooks/indri.yml if adding a role

For documentation:

  • Edit files in docs/
  • Add changelog fragment (see below)

3. Add a Changelog Fragment

For user-visible changes:

echo "Description of your change" > docs/changelog.d/your-branch.feature.md

Fragment types (file suffix):

  • .feature.md - New functionality
  • .bugfix.md - Bug fixes
  • .infra.md - Infrastructure changes
  • .doc.md - Documentation
  • .misc.md - Other

4. Test Your Changes

Before pushing, always test:

For Kubernetes changes:

# Preview what will change
argocd app diff <service>

For DNS changes:

mise run dns-preview

5. Commit and Push

git add <files>
git commit -m "Brief description of change"
git push -u origin feature/your-change-name

6. Create a Pull Request

tea pr create --title "Your PR Title" --description "$(cat <<'EOF'
## Summary
- What you changed
- Why you changed it
 
## Deployment and Testing
- [ ] Tested locally / dry run
- [ ] Ready for ArgoCD sync / Ansible apply
 
EOF
)"

7. Wait for Review

Erich will review your PR and may leave comments. Check for feedback:

mise run pr-comments <pr_number>

Address each comment, then Erich will:

  1. Approve the changes
  2. Deploy them (you don’t need to do this)
  3. Merge the PR

A simple first contribution - adding a service to the Homepage dashboard (go.ops.eblu.me):

  1. Find the service’s Ingress in argocd/manifests/<service>/
  2. Add homepage annotations:
annotations:
  gethomepage.dev/enabled: "true"
  gethomepage.dev/name: "Service Name"
  gethomepage.dev/group: "Apps"
  gethomepage.dev/icon: "service.png"
  1. Create PR and wait for sync