Chat 2 has entered a major rework that Infi confirmed makes selective patches no longer portable. The cherry-pick pipeline as a routine workflow stops with the v1.4.x cycle. Documentation reflects the new state across all touchpoints. UPSTREAM_SYNC.md rewritten: replaces the "How I Cherry-Pick" / "Reviewing What Is New Upstream" / "Conflict Handling" sections with "Why Cherry-Picking Stopped", "What Closing the Pipeline Means in Practice", "What Does Not Change", "What Could Re-Open Later". Existing cherry-pick trails in the git history stay intact, EUPL-1.2 anchor lines and NOTICE.md remain canonical. README.md, CONTRIBUTING.md, ROADMAP.md, THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md and the PR template updated to match: cherry-pick references reframed as historical or pointed at UPSTREAM_SYNC.md for the current state. NOTICE.md keeps the BetterTTV cherry-pick example as a concrete past case but adds a paragraph that the pipeline is closed and clarifies the attribution standard is preserved unchanged. PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md drops the "Upstream cherry-pick from Chat 2" checkbox and the cherry-pick-path compatibility prompt. The upstream git remote was already removed locally on 2026-05-08 (separate change, not in this commit). No source-file edits, no manifest version bump, no changelog entry — this is documentation-only and ships with the next release.
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Contributing to HellionChat
Thanks for taking a look. HellionChat is a one-person side project developed under Hellion Forge. It started as a fork of Chat 2 and has since become a standalone plugin under its own namespace, IPC channels and source tree (standalone-cut completed in v1.0.0). Forking HellionChat itself is explicitly permitted under the EUPL-1.2.
This document explains what I am looking for, what I am not, and how to make a contribution land smoothly.
Before You Open Anything
- Read the README so you understand the scope: a privacy-focused, EUPL-1.2-licensed Dalamud plugin that intentionally removes the upstream webinterface and ships privacy-first defaults.
- Read
docs/UPSTREAM_SYNC.md. Active cherry-picking from upstream Chat 2 has ended in the v1.4.x cycle; HellionChat continues as an independent codebase. Existing upstream-derived code keeps its attribution. New contributions stand on their own and do not need to be cherry-pick-compatible. - Read
SECURITY.md. Anything security-sensitive goes through a private advisory, never a public issue or PR. - Read the Code of Conduct.
What I Will Accept
- Bug fixes for behaviour documented in the README, the in-plugin settings or the changelog.
- Translation contributions for Hellion-specific strings via direct
pull requests against
HellionChat/Resources/HellionStrings.*.resx. Translations for upstream Chat 2 strings (Language.*.resx) are not handled here; those go to the upstream Chat 2 project. - Documentation improvements (README, comments, this file).
- Performance fixes with a measurable before/after.
- New features that fit the privacy-first scope and do not duplicate what an existing Dalamud plugin already does well.
What I Will Probably Decline
- Re-introducing the webinterface or any remote-access feature. It was removed in v0.2.0 on purpose. See the README section "Was gegenüber Chat 2 fehlt".
- Features that bypass the privacy filter or weaken the default retention behaviour without an explicit, documented opt-in.
- Sweeping refactors that touch large parts of the codebase. The maintenance cost outweighs the benefit for a one-person project. (This used to be doubly important because of the upstream cherry-pick path; that path is closed now, but the rule still holds on its own merits.)
- AI-generated code dropped in without disclosure or human review. See
docs/AI_DISCLOSURE.mdfor how I handle AI assistance on my side; I expect comparable transparency from contributors.
If you are unsure whether an idea fits, open a feature-request issue first and ask before writing code. I would rather say "no" to a proposal than to a finished pull request.
Workflow
- Open an issue (bug or feature request) using the templates under
.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/. Skip this for trivial typos. - Fork the repository and branch off
main. Branch naming is informal; something likefix/auto-tell-history-emptyorfeat/theme-exportis fine. - Match the existing code style. The repository ships an
.editorconfigthat VS Code and Rider pick up automatically. - Keep commits focused. Several small commits with clear messages are easier to review than one large one. Squash-on-merge happens at the PR level if needed.
- If your change touches user-visible behaviour, update the README
and/or the changelog block in
HellionChat/HellionChat.yamlandrepo.json. I bump the version number myself at release time. - Open the pull request against
main. The PR template will ask you to summarise the change, the testing you did and any compatibility notes.
Build and Test
The project targets net10.0-windows against Dalamud SDK 15. To build
locally you need:
- .NET 10 SDK
- A working Dalamud dev environment with
DALAMUD_HOMEset (XIVLauncher installed and launched once is the simplest path) - VS Code with the C# Dev Kit, Rider, or Visual Studio
dotnet restore
dotnet build HellionChat.sln -c Release
There are currently no tests in HellionChat.sln. If you add a test
project, point it at the relevant subsystems (privacy filter,
configuration migration, message store) and mention it in the PR.
For a smoke test in-game: build, copy the output into your Dalamud
devPlugins/HellionChat/ directory and load it via /xlplugins.
Continuous Integration
Every push and every pull request runs:
| Workflow | What it checks |
|---|---|
build.yml |
dotnet build and dotnet test |
codeql.yml |
CodeQL security analysis |
A pull request will not be merged while either of these is failing. CodeQL findings on changed code need to be addressed; pre-existing findings on untouched code are tracked separately.
Translations
Hellion-specific strings live in
HellionChat/Resources/HellionStrings.resx (English source) and
HellionStrings.<lang>.resx (per-language). These are accepted as
direct pull requests.
The upstream Chat 2 strings in HellionChat/Resources/Language.*.resx
are not translated here. They are kept as-is from the last
upstream sync and remain the work of the Chat 2 Crowdin community.
Active cherry-picking from upstream ended in the v1.4.x cycle (see
docs/UPSTREAM_SYNC.md), so future
translation improvements to those upstream strings will not flow
into HellionChat automatically anymore. If you have improvements
for the original Chat 2 strings, please contribute them to
Infiziert90/ChatTwo
directly.
Licensing
By submitting a pull request you confirm that:
- Your contribution is your own work, or you have the right to contribute it under the project licence.
- You agree that your contribution will be released under the EUPL-1.2, the same licence as the rest of the project.
There is no separate CLA. Forking HellionChat is explicitly permitted under the EUPL-1.2, as with any EUPL-licensed project.
Response Times
| Channel | Address |
|---|---|
| GitHub Issues | Preferred for bugs and feature requests |
| Discord DM | @j.j_kazama |
kontakt@hellion-media.de |
I respond on weekdays during European business hours and take weekends and FFXIV patch days off. A pull request that sits for a few days has not been ignored. Pinging once after a week is fine; please do not ping daily.
First-time setup
After cloning, run once:
./scripts/setup-hooks.sh
This wires core.hooksPath to .githooks/. The pre-push hook runs preflight
(versions/manifest/changelog/build).
Test suite
The plugin's test suite lives in a separate local repository and is not part of this codebase. If you need access for development, contact the maintainer.