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uscogdata/CONTRIBUTING.md
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chore: CI badge, mirror PR explainer, and the tag-pin release step (#47)
Three items #47 absorbed from #46, held back so a dead badge would not sit
beside an unresolved r-universe one. Both resolve now that v0.4.0 is tagged.

- R-CMD-check badge pointing at the GitHub mirror's workflow, where the
  4-platform matrix actually runs.

- A pull_request_target workflow explaining the mirror flow on every incoming
  PR. A PR here is landed on Gitea and syncs back, and because the merge
  preserves the contributor's commits at their original SHAs, GitHub marks the
  PR 'Merged' with nobody visibly clicking Merge. To a first-time contributor
  that reads as rejection. Say so before it happens.

  pull_request_target rather than pull_request because a fork PR's token is
  read-only under the latter -- it could not comment, which is the entire job.
  That is only safe because this never checks out or runs contributor code; the
  file says so and says not to add a checkout.

- CONTRIBUTING's release checklist now spells out that the tag goes on Gitea and
  the mirror carries it, and that r-universe does NOT pick up a release until
  packages.json's branch pin is edited. '*release' would automate it but needs a
  GitHub Release object, and the mirror pushes tags only -- so it would silently
  never update. Learned while doing this release.
2026-08-10 19:47:26 -04:00

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Markdown

# Contributing to uscogdata
Thanks for reading this — a package like this gets better mostly through people
noticing that a number looks wrong.
## Where the code lives
Development happens on **Gitea**, at
`gitea.civilytics.org/Civilytics/uscogdata`. The repository at
`github.com/civilytics/uscogdata` is a **mirror** that accepts issues and pull
requests.
## What happens to a GitHub pull request
Open it normally. Behind the scenes it is fetched and landed on the canonical
Gitea repository, then syncs back:
```sh
git fetch github refs/pull/42/head:pr-42
git switch main && git merge --no-ff pr-42
git push origin main # Gitea -> mirror -> GitHub
```
Because the merge preserves your commits at their original SHAs, **GitHub marks
your PR merged on its own** as soon as the mirror syncs. So:
> If your pull request closes as "Merged" without anyone visibly clicking
> Merge, that is the normal, successful outcome — not a rejection.
Substantial contributions get a `ctb` entry in `DESCRIPTION`, which surfaces in
`citation("uscogdata")`.
There is no CLA and no DCO sign-off requirement.
## Running the tests
```r
devtools::test() # bundled fixture; no network, no credentials
```
`tests/testthat/setup.R` points `USCOGDATA_URL` at
`inst/extdata/fixture_corpus/` automatically — a four-year slice (2011, 2012,
2019, 2020) covering all 50 states. That is the whole data setup.
## Testing against the live corpus
```sh
USCOGDATA_LIVE_TEST=true Rscript -e 'devtools::test(filter = "live-corpus")'
```
This is worth understanding rather than skipping. Until 0.3.0 the package
**could not read a remote corpus at all** — the partitioned view used a glob,
and DuckDB cannot expand a glob over generic HTTP. It went unnoticed for months
because every test path used a local corpus (the bundled fixture), and so did
the production API (a host mount). Nothing exercised the package the way a new
user does.
`test-live-corpus.R` is the only test that runs with no `USCOGDATA_URL`, no
option, and no fixture. If you change anything touching view registration,
manifest handling, or configuration, run it.
## Do not exclude the fixture from the build
There is a temptation to add `^inst/extdata/fixture_corpus$` to
`.Rbuildignore` because 15 MB feels large for a package. Don't:
- `vignette("total-spending")` reads from it and would fail to build.
- `R CMD check` on r-universe and GitHub Actions would have no corpus, so the
suite could not run without credentials.
This package is not going to CRAN, so its 5 MB guidance does not apply. A
package-size NOTE in `R CMD check` is expected and acceptable.
## Downstream consumers
`cog-api` depends on this package and its CI clones uscogdata at
`USCOGDATA_REF`, **defaulting to `main`**. There is no pin. Anything merged
here reaches the API's next build, so before merging a change to the reader,
run the API suite against your branch:
```sh
Rscript -e "remotes::install_local('/path/to/uscogdata', upgrade = 'never')"
cd /path/to/cog-api/api/tests/testthat
Rscript -e 'testthat::test_dir(".", stop_on_failure = TRUE)'
```
The API calls only exported verbs, so internal refactors are usually safe —
but "usually" is not a release gate.
## Release checklist
1. `devtools::test()` — green against the bundled fixture, offline.
2. `USCOGDATA_LIVE_TEST=true devtools::test()` — green against the live corpus.
3. cog-api suite green against this branch (above).
4. `devtools::check(args = "--as-cran")` — 0 errors, 0 warnings.
5. `pkgdown::build_site()` completes.
6. Vignettes resolve from an installed copy:
`vignette("total-spending", package = "uscogdata")`.
7. **Cold-start check**: on a machine that has never had this package,
install it and run the README quickstart verbatim with no environment
variables set. This is the only check that catches a
corpus-unreachable defect, and its absence is why 0.3.0 needed fixing.
8. Bump `Version` and add a `NEWS.md` section.
9. Tag on **Gitea** (`git tag -a vX.Y.Z && git push origin vX.Y.Z`). The mirror
workflow carries tags to GitHub on its own — confirm the tag appears at
`github.com/civilytics/uscogdata/tags` before continuing.
10. Update the r-universe registry pin at
`github.com/civilytics/civilytics.r-universe.dev` — edit `packages.json`'s
`branch` to the new tag. **r-universe will not pick up a release until this
is edited**: the pin is a tag, deliberately, so a mid-refactor `main` is
never published as a release. `"branch": "*release"` would track releases
automatically, but it needs a GitHub *Release* object and the mirror pushes
tags only — so it would silently never update.