#Contributing

Krate is built in the open. Contributions are welcome!

This section covers the development workflow and how Krate works internally. If you just want to build a site, start with Getting Started.

#Repository layout

packages/
  compiler/      Go compiler (lexer, parser, bundler, renderer, build pipeline)
  runtime/       Client runtime — signals, hydration, SPA router, resources, context
  components/    Built-in UI components (shadcn/ui-style)
  core/          npm CLI wrapper (@krate/core)
  web/           This documentation website
  core-*/        Per-platform binaries (built in CI, published to npm)
examples/        Docs + feature demo site (also used by the integration tests)
scripts/         Build tooling (platform packages, docfind WASM, versioning)

#Development workflow

Build the compiler:

cd packages/compiler
go build -o krate.exe ./cmd/krate

Run the example site in dev mode:

pnpm dev    # runs krate dev against examples/

#Testing

go test ./...                              # all unit + integration tests
go test ./internal/build/ -v               # full project build integration test
go vet ./...

Test suites of note:

• internal/lexer/lexer_test.go — lexer unit tests
• internal/parser/parser_test.go — parser unit tests + edge cases
• internal/renderer/renderer_test.go — renderer unit tests
• internal/css/* — CSS DCE, minification, and @import tests
• internal/build/build_test.go — full project build integration test
• internal/plugin/jsplugin_test.go — JS community plugin runtime (QuickJS)
• internal/docfind/docfind_test.go — in-process WASM index build + search
• internal/gohost/*_test.go — Go host (API routes + components) build, scan, and render tests

#CI/CD

• .github/workflows/ci.yml — 3 platforms (Ubuntu, Windows, macOS); build, vet, test, build the examples project.
• .github/workflows/release.yml — builds per-platform binary packages via scripts/build-platform-packages.mjs and publishes them to npm on a v* tag.

#Updating the vendored docfind WASM

Krate's dev-mode docs search (and the MCP search_docs tool) is backed by a vendored copy of Microsoft's docfind (packages/compiler/third_party/docfind) compiled to WASM. Production docs builds use Pagefind by default, but docfind remains in use. If you change it:

rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown
node scripts/build-docfind.mjs

Commit the regenerated internal/docfind/embedded/*.wasm artifacts so the repo builds without a Rust toolchain.