Coding Standards

Code style expectations

• All new classes/functions/methods should include docstrings.
• All new functions/methods should include type hints (optional for tests).
• Remove commented out code before submitting changes.
• Readability and Consistency over micro-optimizations

Pull Requests

PRs are how you merge your code from your branch to main. To do this, it is helpful to include a:

• Clear description

• Screenshots (if UI)

• How to test locally

• Any known limitations

Committing Code

When committing code, it's helpful to follow the following strategies:

• Commit early and often

• Keep commits small

• Write meaningful messages

It is helpful to use clear, descriptive commit messages. Here are a few good examples of commit messages.

git commit -m "feat: Add sentiment analysis model"

git commit -m "fix: Resolve data preprocessing bug"

git commit -m "docs: Update API documentation"

git commit -m "refactor: Simplify data loading pipeline"

Branch Naming Strategy

For fellowship projects, use a simple branching strategy:

main: Production-ready code

develop: Integration branch for features

feature/feature-name: Individual feature development

hotfix/issue-name: Quick fixes

Document decisions

If you make a non-obvious choice, write it down in the README or relevant docs.