Contributing to MPF

Want to add a feature? A missing event somewhere? Wrote a new device which might be useful for other users? Fixed a bug? Added some small missing piece?

We’d love to take your contribution upstream!

Found a bug which you can reproduce? Fill an issue:

If you want to discuss a feature or bug (or if you are unsure). Visit our forum: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/mpf-users

Install MPF in development mode

To work on MPF you need to install it in developer/editable mode:

  1. Fork the mpf repo on GitHub.
  2. Fork the mpf-mc repo on GitHub (only needed for media controller changes - skip otherwise).
  3. Clone your fork of the mpf repo to your local machine (git clone https://github.com/YOUR_GITHUB_HANDLE/mpf/)
  4. Install MPF dependencies if you did not install mpf before. On linux you can run our installer https://raw.githubusercontent.com/missionpinball/mpf-debian-installer/dev/install-mpf-dependencies. On other platforms check the installation instructions instructions.
  5. Run pip3 install -e . from within the mpf folder to install MPF in editable mode.
  6. Clone your fork of the mpf-mc repo to your local machine (git clone https://github.com/YOUR_GITHUB_HANDLE/mpf-mc/; only needed for media controller changes - skip otherwise).
  7. Install MPF-MC dependencies if you did not install mpf-mc before. On linux you can run our installer https://raw.githubusercontent.com/missionpinball/mpf-debian-installer/dev/install-mc-dependencies. On other platforms check the installation instructions instructions.
  8. Run pip3 install -e . from within the mpf-mc folder to install MPF MC in editable mode (only needed for media controller changes - skip otherwise and just run pip3 install mpf-mc --pre).
  9. Switch both repositories to the branch corresponding to the version you want to work with. This should be dev in most cases or the current release for smaller bug fixed. Do what works best for you. We can help to forward or backport your changes.
  10. Create a local branch to work on (git checkout -b your_feature_name).
  11. Make your changes.
  12. Add your name to the AUTHORS file.
  13. If possible add an unit test. We can help with that and a first Pull Request without a test is definitely fine.
  14. Run python3 -m unittest discover -s mpf.tests and check that all tests still pass. You achieve the same for mpf-mc with python3 -m unittest discover -s mpfmc.tests.
  15. Commit your changes (git commit -a)
  16. Push your changes to your github (git push origin your_feature_name).
  17. Create and submit your pull request on github.

We recommend you to use a decent IDE because it makes life easier. Most of the MPF developers use PyCharm but other IDEs will work as well.

Getting started with an open issue

We maintain a list of issues which are self-contained and good to solve on their own without too much interaction with core code. We label those as help wanted (although they do not have to be easy, just self-containted). If you want to work on one of them (or any other issue) comment on the issue or write in the forum and we will assist you along the way.