Before a pull request

Français · Type: how-to · Audience: contributor · Context: engine repository · Status: ready · Applies from: 4.5.0

One list of what to run and check before opening a pull request on the engine, so that CI confirms what you already know instead of telling you.

What you get

A branch whose fast tier is green on your machine (format, lint, types, unit tests, the sample game's gates), whose behaviour change is owned, whose CHANGELOG fragment is there, and whose pull request description says what changed and what is left.

Context and versions

The engine repository, on a branch named as Conventions says. The commands are those of 4.4.0; the CHANGELOG fragments exist since 4.1.9, release-check:local since 4.1.17.

Prerequisites

A prepared repository: Developer setup, with Python and its modules (the asset tests need them) and Playwright Chromium.
Your change made with The dev loop.

Where to run the commands

In the engine repository, on your machine, on your branch. Run one test suite at a time: two suites side by side compete for the same cores and leave orphan workers behind when interrupted.

Steps

Keep the content rules.
- Gameplay stays declarative in games/<id>/; geometry belongs in layout/*.json, never typed by hand.
- Every schema-3 rule, choice, topic, listener, persistent block and script step has a stable id. npm run ids -- --write --map writes the missing ones into the sources (State and saves).
- No private source asset, nothing whose commercial rights are unclear.

Format, lint and types.
```
# in the engine repository
npm run quality
```
It runs, in this order: format:check (Biome formatting), lint:code (Biome lint), knip (unused files, exports and dependencies), tsc --noEmit with tsconfig.json, tsc --noEmit -p tsconfig.strictest.json (every index access checked in src/), and lint:content (the content lint). npm run format writes the formatting; a commit that only reformats is its own commit, listed in .git-blame-ignore-revs (Conventions).

The unit suite.
```
# in the engine repository
npm run check
```
check selects the game, type-checks, then runs test:node: every test file except the heavy solver tests (the nightly and the candidate run those) and the two asset tests (next step).

The asset tests, which need Python and its image modules.
```
# in the engine repository
npm run test:assets
```

The game's gates.
```
# in the engine repository
npm run verify:game
```
It runs validate, solve, solve -- --chapters, verify:variants, i18n -- status, the content lint and playtests, on the current game.

The behaviour baseline. A change meant to keep behaviour leaves it identical:
```
# in the engine repository
npm run quality:baseline -- --check
```
A change that alters behaviour on purpose, or adds a test, rewrites it with npm run quality:baseline (which also writes the READMEs' figures) and commits the result. See The quality baseline.

The documentation, when you touched it or the code a page rests on:
```
# in the engine repository
npm run docs:truth
npm run wiki -- check
```
wiki -- check ends with ✔ … 0 error(s); Writing documentation says how pages are written and checked.

The CHANGELOG fragment. A branch that changes src/, bridge/, tools/, scripts/, cli/, connectors/ or games/ carries changes/<slug>.md (and changes/<slug>.log.md for a LOG entry):
```
# in the engine repository
npm run changes -- --check
```
It prints ✔ … a fragment or a CHANGELOG edit is there, or no code moved, or the refusal and what to write (Conventions).

A browser or visual change: build for production, serve it, play it, and look at the screenshots.
```
# in the engine repository
npm run build:game
npm run preview -- --port 5173 &
npm run e2e:smoke -- http://127.0.0.1:5173/
```
e2e:smoke plays the production build with the generic harness in a 844 × 390 Chromium; the screenshots land in E2E_OUT (default /tmp/e2e). Open them. Stop the preview server afterwards (kill %1 in the same shell).

The same, in one line. release-check:local chains most of the above:
```
# in the engine repository
npm run release-check:local
```
It runs quality, docs:truth, test:node, build:game (the game's gates, the bundle, verify:dist, the spoiler check, the asset audit) and quality:baseline -- --check --dist. It does not run test:assets, changes -- --check, wiki -- check nor the browser.

Open the pull request from .github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md, its title as Conventions says. Fill every section: "What changes" (what a player, an author or a host sees differently), "Checked", and "Not done, said as such" ("Nothing" when nothing is left). A visual change carries a screenshot in the description.

Limit · template-checklist The template's "Checked" list names npm run quality and npm test only. The list on this page is the complete one: knip (inside quality), check, test:assets and verify:game are expected too.

The milestone checklist (from the roadmap)

The roadmap of the v1.3 to v2 milestones held its own list, run at every milestone; it is kept here as it was written:

npm run validate && npm run solve && npm test && npm run build green, CI green, the asset audit green.
The demo uses every new primitive at least once and the e2e goes through it (844 × 390 captures).
A save made with the previous version of the demo loads after migration (a unit test on a JSON frozen per milestone). Today one golden save per release since 3.0 lives in tests/fixtures/saves/ and is played to its end by tests/save-v3.test.ts and the baseline.
A copy of src/engine into the private game: its tests, solver and e2e unchanged (the French roadmap gives the figures of that time: 37 tests, a 62-action solution, the private game's e2e).
MCP: npm run -s mcp lists the updated tools; a fresh AI session adds a script or an event to the demo following only the content guide.
A tagged release with notes, and the README's "Releases" table updated. The README now names the current release in its Documentation section instead of a table; releases are made as Releasing says.

Expected result, and how to check it

Every command above ends green. On the pull request, pr-gate is green once every job of the plan succeeded (CI explained); a job the plan spares says "not needed by the plan" and succeeds.

Common errors

Symptom	Cause	Fix
`format:check` fails	A file is not formatted	`npm run format`, in a commit of its own if it reformats more than your change
`knip` names an unused export or file	Dead code left by the change	Remove it, or use it
`✖ this branch changes the code and carries no fragment`	No `changes/<slug>.md`	Write it (Conventions)
`✖ behaviour moved from tests/quality-baseline.json`	A digest, a verdict, a golden save or the API surface moved, or a README figure lags	The quality baseline
`test:assets` fails at import	Python modules missing	`python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt`
CI's coverage job warns "coverage ratchet"	A floor is three points or more below what the tests reach	Not blocking on a pull request; raise it (The coverage ratchet)

Files or data changed

npm run format rewrites source files; npm run quality:baseline rewrites tests/quality-baseline.json and the figures of README.md and README.fr.md; npm run ids -- --write --map writes ids into games/<id>/. The checks themselves write only under .cache/ and /tmp/e2e.

Recovery or going back

A rewrite you did not mean (format, quality:baseline) is undone with git restore <file>. An interrupted test run can leave Vitest workers running: stop them by their process id (ps then kill <pid>), not by a pattern.

References

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