Contributing
============

Thank you for your interest in contributing to **mini-causal**! Contributions are welcome — whether bug reports, documentation improvements, examples, or code changes.

How to Report an Issue
----------------------

- Search existing issues to avoid duplicates
- When filing a new issue, provide a clear title and a short description of the problem or feature request
- Include a minimal reproducible example when possible: data sample, code snippet, and any error tracebacks

Development Setup
-----------------

1. **Create and activate a virtual environment**

   **Windows (PowerShell):**

   .. code-block:: powershell

      python -m venv .venv
      .\.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1

   **macOS/Linux (bash):**

   .. code-block:: bash

      python -m venv .venv
      source .venv/bin/activate

2. **Install the package and project dependencies:**

   .. code-block:: bash

      pip install -e .
      pip install -r requirements.txt

3. **(Optional) Install example dependencies to run notebooks:**

   .. code-block:: bash

      pip install jupyter matplotlib seaborn

Running Tests
-------------

Run the test suite with:

.. code-block:: bash

   pytest -q

Code Style and Quality
----------------------

- Follow Python 3 style (PEP 8)
- Use `black` and `isort` to format code
- Add or update tests for any bug fixes or new features
- Include docstrings for all public functions and classes

Workflow for Contributions
--------------------------

1. Fork the repository and create a topic branch for your change
2. Make small, focused commits with clear messages
3. Ensure tests pass locally and add tests if relevant
4. Open a pull request against the ``main`` branch describing the change and linking any related issues

Pull Request Checklist
----------------------

- [ ] The PR has a descriptive title and summary
- [ ] Relevant tests were added or updated
- [ ] Code is formatted and linted
- [ ] Documentation and examples updated if applicable

Review Process
--------------

Maintainers will review PRs and may request changes. Please respond to review comments; maintainers will help guide any required updates.

Acknowledgements
----------------

Thanks again for contributing — even small improvements make a big difference!