Contributing

Thank you for contributing to Meshtastic Apple! Please read this guide before opening a PR.

Prerequisites

Xcode (latest stable)
iOS/macOS simulators installed
SwiftLint (brew install swiftlint)

Run ./scripts/setup-hooks.sh once after cloning to install the pre-commit SwiftLint hook.

Documentation

The app ships a built-in Help & Documentation browser, a Jekyll site on GitHub Pages, and documentation is also published to the main meshtastic.org site.

Resource	Location
Meshtastic.org	meshtastic.org/docs/category/apple-apps
GitHub Pages	meshtastic.github.io/Meshtastic-Apple
In-app	Settings → Help & Documentation
Deep link	`meshtastic:///settings/helpDocs`

Source markdown lives under docs/user/ and docs/developer/. To rebuild the bundled HTML after editing any markdown:

bash scripts/build-docs.sh --output Meshtastic/Resources/docs

Commit the regenerated files under Meshtastic/Resources/docs/ with your PR.

Branch Naming

Branch from main (trunk-based development). Use descriptive names:

feat/bluetooth-reconnect-improvements
fix/crash-on-ble-disconnect
docs/update-mqtt-guide
chore/update-protobufs

Commit Messages

Use imperative mood subject lines:

Fix crash when BLE device disconnects
Add TAK CoT position relay support
Update protobufs to v2.7

Explain what changed and why in the body. Keep subject lines under 72 characters.

PR Checklist

All existing tests pass (⌘U in Xcode)
New tests written for new features and bug fixes
SwiftLint reports no new errors or warnings
UI changes include screenshots or a screen recording in the PR description
Deep link additions are documented in docs/developer/deep-links.md
SwiftData schema changes include a VersionedSchema and MigrationStage
Protobuf changes are regenerated with ./scripts/gen_protos.sh and built

Code Style

Swift only. No Objective-C.
SwiftUI for all UI. UIKit only where unavoidable.
SF Symbols for all icons — no embedded image assets for icons.
OSLog for all logging — no print(). SwiftLint enforces this.
Indent with tabs.
Opening braces on the same line.
// MARK: - to separate logical sections.
guard for early exit; avoid deeply nested if.

SwiftLint Limits

Check	Warning	Error
Line length	400	—
File length	3500	—
Type body length	400	—
Function body length	200	—
Cyclomatic complexity	60	—
Type name length	60	70

Platform Guards

Guard iOS-only APIs: #if !targetEnvironment(macCatalyst)
Guard canImport: #if canImport(UIKit)
Guard version availability: if #available(iOS 26, *) { ... }

Updating Protobufs

git submodule update --remote protobufs/
./scripts/gen_protos.sh
Build and verify tests pass.
Commit generated changes together with the submodule pointer update.

Release Process

See RELEASING.md in the repository root for the full release checklist and App Store submission process.