You can help the Dart project in many ways, in addition to contributing code. For example, you can [report bugs](https://dartbug.com), ask and answer [Dart questions on StackOverflow](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/dart), and improve the documentation.
* Contribute to the Dart developer websites such as [dart.dev](https://dart.dev) (repo: [dart-lang/site-www](https://github.com/dart-lang/site-www)). For more information, see [Writing for Dart and Flutter websites](https://github.com/dart-lang/site-shared/blob/master/doc/writing-for-dart-and-flutter-websites.md).
* Improve the API reference docs at [api.dart.dev](https://api.dart.dev) by editing doc comments in the [Dart SDK repo](https://github.com/dart-lang/sdk/tree/main/sdk/lib). For more information on how to write API docs, see [Effective Dart: Documentation](https://dart.dev/guides/language/effective-dart/documentation).
Before we can use your code, you must sign the [Google Individual Contributor License Agreement](https://developers.google.com/open-source/cla/individual) (CLA), which you can do online. The CLA is necessary mainly because you own the copyright to your changes, even after your contribution becomes part of our codebase, so we need your permission to use and distribute your code. We also need to be sure of various other things—for instance that you'll tell us if you know that your code infringes on other people's patents. You don't have to sign the CLA until after you've submitted your code for review and a member has approved it, but you must do it before we can put your code into our codebase.
Before you start working on a larger contribution, you should get in touch with us first through the [Dart Issue Tracker](https://dartbug.com) with your idea so that we can help out and possibly guide you. Coordinating up front makes it much easier to avoid frustration later on.
This repository uses Gerrit for code reviews, rather than GitHub PRs. However, you may submit a GitHub PR from the GitHub interface, e.g. to edit some API documentation, and it will be automatically converted into a Gerrit CL by copybara. You can find the link to that CL from the GitHub "checks" interface, it will be the "details" of the "copybara" check. The PR will be automatically closed when the CL is reviewed and landed.
## Setting up the environment
In order to submit a patch from a local workspace, you need to get the [depot\_tools](http://dev.chromium.org/developers/how-tos/depottools).
To work with the Dart code, you need to download and build the development branch. Active development of Dart takes place on the `main` branch, from which we push "green" versions that have passed all tests to `dev` branch. Complete instructions are found at [Getting The Source](https://github.com/dart-lang/sdk/wiki/Building#getting-the-source). **You must use the `gclient` tool (`fetch`), using `git clone` will not get you a functional environment!**
More detailed instructions for the `git cl` tools available on https://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/chrome-infra-docs/flat/depot_tools/docs/html/depot_tools_tutorial.html#_creating_uploading_a_cl
All files in the Dart project must start with the following header. If you add a new file please also add this. The year should be a single number (not a range; don't use "2011-2012", even if the original code did). If you edit an existing file you don't have to update the year.
Contributions made by corporations are covered by a different agreement than the one above, the [Software Grant and Corporate Contributor License Agreement](https://cla.developers.google.com/about/google-corporate).
