Contribute via PR Skill (contribute-pr)

Hanflow provides an AI-assisted contribution skill, contribute-pr, that lets you complete the full "pick topic → design → implement → submit PR" workflow without needing to know the entire codebase — while still respecting Hanflow's architectural charter.

It reuses the Hanflow self-evolution pipeline (loop-evolve) for the scan→code→verify phases, produces code that conforms to the CHARTER design invariants, and submits via Pull Request — you do not need write access to xpc1024/hanflow.

Who it's for

  • New contributors who want to help but don't know where to start
  • Folks with ideas but limited time to dig into code details
  • Anyone fixing issues or completing feature modules
  • Documentation-only contributors (typos, examples) — use /contribute-pr docs

Prerequisites

  1. Install ZCode / Claude Code / Codex (any one)

  2. One-line install of the contribute-pr skill (includes loop-evolve dependency + GitHub CLI).

    ⚠️ Terminal requirement: Run the commands below in Git Bash (Windows) / Terminal (Mac) / bash (Linux). Do NOT run in WSL, CMD, or PowerShell (WSL proxy issues and may lack bash; CMD/PowerShell have no bash command).

    curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xpc1024/hanflow-evolve/main/install.sh | bash

    Or install manually (if you want to inspect the script first):

    git clone https://github.com/xpc1024/hanflow-evolve
cd hanflow-evolve && bash install.sh

    The installer automatically:

    • Clones hanflow-evolve (skill source) + hanflow (your fork) + hanflow-home
    • Installs contribute-pr + loop-evolve skills to ~/.zcode/skills/
    • Auto-forks hanflow to your GitHub account (when gh is logged in) or asks for your username
    • Configures the upstream remote (needed to PR against xpc1024/hanflow)
    • Installs and signs in to GitHub CLI for you (see "Credential safety" below)

  3. The installer guides you through gh auth login (browser authorization). Once done, you can trigger the skill.

⚠️ Credential safety (please read first)

The installer and contribute-pr need GitHub credentials to submit PRs. The default path is gh auth login --web: you only click Authorize in the browser. The credential is stored securely by gh in your system credential store (Windows Credential Manager / macOS Keychain) — Hanflow never touches your credential.

  • Your GitHub password is never required
  • The credential is managed by the official gh tool; revoke anytime with gh auth logout
  • On headless servers or if you prefer not to use gh auth, fall back to a fine-grained PAT path (zero persistence) — see the skill's references/credential-handling.md

Triggering the skill in each tool

ToolHow to trigger
ZCode / Claude CodeType /contribute-pr
CodexPaste the "AGENTS.md snippet" (below) into the project's AGENTS.md, then say contribute-pr in chat

Full workflow

1.  scan              gather signals (issues / stubs / learnings)
2.  prioritize        score & sort candidate themes
3.  check_occupied    dedupe (query GitHub PRs + local archive, avoid topic clashes)
4.  human_topic       (optional) you specify the topic directly, skipping 1-3
5.  plan              generate direction plan
6.  audit_direction   AUDIT the direction
7.  gate1             wait for your confirmation of direction
8.  design            outline + architecture design
9.  audit_design      AUDIT the design
10. gate2             wait for your confirmation of design
11. plan_exec         generate execution plan
12. code              TDD implementation (on evolve/<contribution_id> branch)
13. verify            tests + smoke + auto-fix
14. gate3             wait for your final confirmation
15. submit            S0 quality gate + fork push + open PR (code + optional docs)

Quality assurance (why maintainers can focus on requirements value)

Before submitting, the S0 quality gate runs (local readiness checks):

  • charter-check architectural invariants review (CHARTER design rules)
  • ruff lint zero warnings
  • conventional commits compliance

The submitted PR description includes real data (test counts, invariant checks, lint status) so maintainers can see at a glance that quality has been verified.

Honest note: local S0 green ≠ GitHub CI green (environment differences). Maintainers can usually focus on requirements value, but may still encounter CI environment issues that need your attention — this is residual work the skill cannot fully eliminate.

Deduplication

The check_occupied step in topic selection queries upstream GitHub PRs (xpc1024/hanflow + hanflow-home) and your local CONTRIBUTIONS.md to avoid topic clashes:

  • Active PR (open) → hard skip, not selectable
  • Merged PR → "this feature was merged on X by @y, you can do an enhanced version"
  • Closed PR → "this was submitted but not merged, check the reason before deciding"

Command reference

CommandBehavior
/contribute-prResume current phase, or start a new contribution
/contribute-pr topic <desc>You specify the topic, skip selection
/contribute-pr docs <desc>Docs-only contribution, jump to hanflow-home
/contribute-pr statusPrint current state + local contribution archive
/contribute-pr refreshRefresh local archive status (gh pr view)
/contribute-pr gate approve|revise|rejectConfirm at a Gate phase
/contribute-pr abortAbort current contribution, clean up credentials

Language variants (中文 / English)

The skill defaults to Chinese output (set via the user-level ~/.zcode/AGENTS.md). If you prefer English — for example when pairing with international contributors, or when sharing phase output in an English-language PR thread — use the -en variant:

CommandBehavior
/contribute-pr-enSame as /contribute-pr, but all output in English
/contribute-pr-en topic <desc>Specify topic, English output
/contribute-pr-en docs <desc>Docs-only contribution, English output
/contribute-pr-en statusPrint state + local archive, English
/contribute-pr-en gate approve|revise|rejectGate confirm, English
/contribute-pr-en abortAbort + clean credentials, English

The -en variant does not duplicate the skill — it delegates to contribute-pr and overrides only the output language. State (.contribute/state.yaml) and artifacts are shared, so you can switch between /contribute-pr and /contribute-pr-en mid-contribution freely.

The same -en pattern applies to the other hanflow-evolve skills: /loop-evolve-en and /loop-evolve-max-en (the latter also routes expert-subagent output to English).

FAQ

Q: Will Hanflow collect my GitHub credentials? A: No. The default path uses gh auth, credentials are stored by the official gh tool, Hanflow never touches them. See "Credential safety".

Q: I only want to change docs (typos, examples)? A: Use /contribute-pr docs <desc> — skips code phases and submits directly on hanflow-home.

Q: What if my PR clashes with someone else's topic? A: check_occupied warns you in advance. If both are already submitted, GitHub's PR-create-fail acts as a safety net (the skill is idempotent — if a branch already has a PR, it reuses the existing URL instead of creating a duplicate).

Q: Can my contribution history sync across machines? A: The local CONTRIBUTIONS.md is a single-machine archive, not synced across machines. But cross-contributor deduplication relies on GitHub PR queries (global source of truth), not on your local archive.

AGENTS.md snippet (for Codex users)

Codex has no native skill mechanism. Paste this snippet into the project root's AGENTS.md to trigger the skill in chat:

<!-- AGENTS.md snippet (paste for Codex) -->
## Hanflow community contribution skill (contribute-pr)

When the user says "contribute to hanflow PR" / "community contribution" / "contribute-pr",
follow this workflow:

1. Read ~/.zcode/skills/contribute-pr/SKILL.md (if missing, tell the user to run
   curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xpc1024/hanflow-evolve/main/install.sh | bash)
2. Follow the phase routing in SKILL.md, with tool mapping:
   - "invoke Agent/subagent" → use the Task tool
   - "Edit/Write files"    → use apply_patch
   - other Bash/Read calls → same as Codex native
3. The credential safety notice must be printed first (see credential-handling.md)

Want to go deeper?

  • Skill source: skills/contribute-pr/ in the xpc1024/hanflow-evolve repo
  • Traditional contribution (without the AI skill): see previous page Contributing Guide