Contributing to Minga

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Thanks for your interest! Minga is in early development and contributions are welcome, whether that's bug reports, feature ideas, or code.

Build from source

Minga is two programs: an Elixir app (editor logic) and a Zig binary (terminal rendering). You need both toolchains plus Erlang. A version manager makes this painless.

Install the toolchain

Using asdf or mise:

asdf plugin add erlang
asdf plugin add elixir
asdf plugin add zig

Clone and build

git clone https://github.com/jsmestad/minga.git
cd minga
asdf install          # Installs pinned Erlang, Elixir, Zig from .tool-versions
mix deps.get
mix compile           # Builds both Elixir and Zig

The first build takes a few minutes (Zig compiles tree-sitter grammars for 24 languages). After that, rebuilds are incremental and fast.

Run it

bin/minga              # Empty buffer
bin/minga path/to/file # Open a file

Running Tests

mix test                       # Elixir tests
cd zig && zig build test       # Zig renderer tests

Before Committing

All three must pass:

make lint                         # Formatting + Credo + compile warnings
mix test --warnings-as-errors     # Tests
mix dialyzer                      # Typespec consistency

Project Layout

See AGENTS.md (in the repo root) for the full project structure, coding standards, and conventions. The highlights:

  • @spec on every public function: Elixir 1.19's type system is strict
  • Pattern matching over if/cond: multi-clause functions preferred
  • Test files mirror lib/: lib/minga/buffer/document.ex → test/minga/buffer/document_test.exs
  • Property-based tests with StreamData for data structures

Key Documentation

DocWhat it covers
README.mdProject overview and quick start
docs/ARCHITECTURE.mdTwo-process design, supervision, port protocol
docs/PERFORMANCE.mdOptimization roadmap with BEAM-specific techniques
AGENTS.mdCoding standards, project structure, how to add features

How to Add Things

A new command

  1. Define in Minga.Command.Registry with name + description
  2. Add keybinding in Minga.Keymap.Defaults
  3. Implement in the appropriate lib/minga/editor/commands/*.ex module
  4. Test the command and the keybinding lookup

A new motion

  1. Add function to the appropriate lib/minga/motion/*.ex module with @spec
  2. Wire into Minga.Mode.Normal and Minga.Mode.OperatorPending
  3. Test against known buffer content, including Unicode edge cases

A new text object

  1. Add function to Minga.TextObject with @spec
  2. Register in Minga.Mode.OperatorPending
  3. Test: cursor inside, cursor outside, nested, empty content

A new render command (both sides)

  1. Add opcode + encoder in Minga.Port.Protocol
  2. Add decoder + handler in zig/src/protocol.zig and zig/src/renderer.zig
  3. Test encode/decode round-trip on both sides

Performance Debugging with Telemetry

Minga instruments the keystroke-to-render critical path with :telemetry spans. Set :log_level_render to :debug in your config to see per-stage timing in *Messages* (press SPC b m to view):

# In ~/.config/minga/config.exs
set :log_level_render, :debug

This shows output like:

[render:invalidation] 0µs
[render:layout] 12µs
[render:scroll] 45µs
[render:content] 89µs
[render:chrome] 34µs
[render:compose] 18µs
[render:emit] 22µs
[render:total] 224µs
[input:dispatch] 312µs
[command:move_down] 8µs
[port:emit] 48µs (1234 bytes)

Available telemetry events

EventMetadataWhat it measures
[:minga, :render, :pipeline]window_countFull render frame
[:minga, :render, :stage]stage atomIndividual render stage
[:minga, :input, :dispatch]Keystroke through input router
[:minga, :command, :execute]command atomNamed command execution
[:minga, :port, :emit]byte_countProtocol encoding + port write

Attaching custom handlers

For deeper analysis (histograms, percentile tracking), attach your own handler in IEx or a config file:

:telemetry.attach("my-handler", [:minga, :render, :pipeline, :stop], fn _event, measurements, metadata, _config ->
  duration_us = System.convert_time_unit(measurements.duration, :native, :microsecond)
  IO.puts("Frame: #{duration_us}µs, windows: #{metadata.window_count}")
end, nil)

Running the overhead benchmark

To verify telemetry overhead is negligible:

mix run benchmarks/telemetry_overhead.exs

Commit Messages

type(scope): short description

Types: feat, fix, refactor, test, docs, chore Scopes: buffer, port, editor, mode, keymap, zig, cli

Examples:

  • feat(buffer): implement gap buffer with cursor movement
  • fix(editor): reparse highlights on normal-mode operators
  • test(buffer): add property-based tests for insert/delete

Updating Documentation

When you finish a feature or change the architecture, update:

  • docs/ARCHITECTURE.md: if you add process types, opcodes, or change supervision
  • docs/PERFORMANCE.md: mark optimizations as done