How to Contribute¶

This page summarizes the contribution process for the Reconstruction‑Grade eDiscovery Standard. For complete details, see CONTRIBUTING.md in the repository root.

Before you start¶

The RGR Standard is vendor‑neutral. Contributions should not introduce product‑specific language into normative text.
The standard is not legal advice. It defines architectural criteria for evidence preservation systems.
The canonical text lives in the /standard/ directory.

Non‑normative contributions¶

These do not change MUST/SHOULD/MAY requirements:

Typo corrections, grammar, formatting
Clarifications that preserve existing meaning
New examples, diagrams, or commentary
Toolkit pages and implementation guidance
Navigation improvements, cross‑links, metadata

Process: Open a Pull Request directly. Small fixes (typos, broken links) can be committed without a prior Issue.

Normative contributions¶

These do change conformance requirements:

Adding, removing, or rewording a MUST, SHOULD, or MAY requirement
Adding or modifying conformance tests (T‑01 through T‑07+)
Changing definitions that affect how conformance is evaluated

Process:

Open a Normative Change Proposal issue first.
Include: proposed wording, rationale, conformance‑level impact, and testability.
Wait for steward review and working‑group discussion.
Submit a PR referencing the approved Issue.
Update CHANGELOG.md and bump VERSION.

Style guidelines¶

Guideline	Details
Normative keywords	MUST, SHOULD, MAY in UPPERCASE (RFC 2119)
Testable language	Prefer "the system MUST produce X" over vague intent
Vendor neutrality	No product names in normative text
Cross‑references	Use requirement codes (e.g., `RGR‑DS‑003`) and section numbers
Non‑normative labels	Clearly mark examples, commentary, and toolkit content

Running locally¶

pip install -r requirements.txt
mkdocs serve

The site builds from mkdocs.yml with docs_dir: standard.

Questions?¶

Open a Standard Feedback issue or start a Discussion.