Welcome, cave artist. There are many ways to help, and most need no code at all.

Ways to help

Tell a story or report a bump

Open a GitHub issue that says what you tried, what you expected, and what happened. Tiny programs are perfect bug reports:

ugg bug: oga with three things in a binga block
grunk x = 1
binga x == 1
    oga "one", x, "!"
unga

Write examples

The examples folder is the heart of the project. New examples should:

• do one fun thing
• be readable by a beginner
• come with a .out file showing the exact output
• have a short note at the top in an ugg line

A test runs every example and compares the output, so your .out must match exactly.

Improve the dictionary

Every word lives in src/cmc/words.py. A good entry has:

• a one-line summary
• the syntax, with <things> in angle brackets
• a warm explanation with an example
• tips about the mistakes people actually make

Translate

The dictionary, the cheat sheet, and the tutorial are the best things to translate first. Keep the CMC words themselves; translate the explanations.

Teach

Classroom materials, posters, wall charts, and videos are all welcome. Tell us how it went -- "the 6 year olds loved skrib but got stuck on X" is valuable design feedback.

Write code

• Bugs with tests are the fastest to accept.
• Big features should start as an issue with a sketch of the design.
• Keep the language small: new keywords need a very good reason.
• Every error message needs a friendly hint. That is the house style.

House style

• Kindness first. Errors, docs, and messages should make a beginner feel

capable.

• One idea per line. In code and in explanations.
• Explain WHY. Comments and docs explain reasons, not mechanics.
• Test everything. powershell -File native\tests\run_tests.ps1 must pass.
• No new dependencies. CMC is plain C++ (C++17) install. Pull requests

that add packages will be asked to remove them.

The setup

git clone https://github.com/your-name/caveman-code
cd caveman-code
set PYTHONPATH=src
bin\cmc.exe run examples/01_hello_oga.cmc
bin\ogabooga.exe
powershell -File native\tests\run_tests.ps1

To rebuild the website:

python tools/build_site.py --check

Pull request checklist

• [ ] Tests pass
• [ ] New behavior has tests
• [ ] Error messages have hints
• [ ] Docs updated (README, docs/, site_content/) if users see a change
• [ ] Examples still pass
• [ ] The diff is small and focused

The code, cave by cave

Thank you for helping the next cave coder.

Next: Publishing guide.