Copilotkit Contribute

Contributing to CopilotKit

> Important: CopilotKit's internal v2 packages use the @copilotkit/* namespace. The public API that users install is @copilotkit/*. When contributing, you work with @copilotkit/* source but users never see that namespace.

Live Documentation (MCP)

This plugin includes an MCP server (copilotkit-docs) that provides search-docs and search-code tools for querying live CopilotKit documentation and source code.

• Claude Code: Auto-configured by the plugin's .mcp.json -- no setup needed.
• Codex: Requires manual configuration. See the [copilotkit-debug skill](../copilotkit-debug/SKILL.md#mcp-setup) for setup instructions.

Workflow

1. Fork and clone the CopilotKit/CopilotKit repository.
2. Install dependencies with pnpm install (requires pnpm v9.x and Node 20+).
3. Build once with pnpm build to bootstrap all packages.
4. Create a branch using the naming convention: feat/-, fix/-, or docs/-.
5. Develop with pnpm dev (watches all packages) or target a specific package with nx run @copilotkit/:dev.
6. Write and run tests with nx run @copilotkit/:test. All v2 packages use Vitest.
7. Lint and format with pnpm run lint --fix && pnpm run format.
8. Commit using conventional commit format: (): (enforced by commitlint).
9. Push and open a PR against the main branch. CI builds all packages and publishes preview packages via pkg-pr-new.

Before Opening a PR

• Reach out to the maintainers first for any significant work (file an issue or ask on Discord).
• Run pnpm run test to verify all tests pass.
• Run pnpm run build to verify the full build succeeds.
• Run pnpm run check-prettier to verify formatting.
• Ensure commit messages follow the (): format.

Quick Reference

| Task | Command | |---|---| | Install dependencies | pnpm install | | Build all packages | pnpm build | | Dev mode (all) | pnpm dev | | Dev mode (v2 only) | pnpm dev:next | | Run all tests | pnpm run test | | Run v2 tests only | pnpm test:next | | Run single package tests | nx run @copilotkit/core:test | | Test with coverage | pnpm run test:coverage | | Lint | pnpm run lint | | Format | pnpm run format | | Check formatting | pnpm run check-prettier | | Type check | pnpm run check-types | | Package quality checks | pnpm run check:packages | | Dependency graph | pnpm run graph |

Key Architecture Points

• V2 (@copilotkit/*) is the real implementation. V1 (@copilotkit/*) wraps V2.
• New features always go in V2 packages under packages/v2/.
• Communication between frontend and runtime uses the AG-UI protocol (SSE-based events).
• The monorepo uses Nx for task orchestration and pnpm workspaces.

Reference Documents

• [Contribution Guide](references/contribution-guide.md) — full onboarding walkthrough
• [Repo Structure](references/repo-structure.md) — package layout and architecture
• [Testing Guide](references/testing-guide.md) — Vitest setup, running tests, coverage
• [PR Guidelines](references/pr-guidelines.md) — CI checks, review process, expectations

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: CopilotKit
• Source: CopilotKit/skills
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.