Contributing

WAVE is open source and hosted on GitHub at github.com/Oabraham1/wave. Contributions are welcome across the entire project.

Building from Source

WAVE is written in Rust. You need a working Rust toolchain installed via rustup.

git clone https://github.com/Oabraham1/wave.git
cd wave
cargo build --release

This builds all crates in the workspace: the compiler (wave-compiler), the emulator (wave-emu), the runtime (wave-runtime), and the language SDKs.

Running Tests

Each crate has its own test suite. Run tests for a specific crate from the workspace root:

cargo test -p wave-compiler
cargo test -p wave-emu
cargo test -p wave-runtime

Or run the full test suite:

cargo test

Continuous Integration

The CI pipeline runs on every pull request and checks:

• Lint - cargo clippy across all crates.
• Format - cargo fmt --check to enforce consistent style.
• SDK tests - test suites for all language SDKs (Rust, Python, TypeScript, C++).

All CI checks must pass before a pull request can be merged.

Areas of Contribution

There are several areas where contributions have high impact:

New Backends

WAVE currently compiles to Metal IR, PTX, and GCN ISA. Adding support for additional targets - particularly Intel Xe - would expand hardware coverage. Backend work lives in wave-compiler.

Compiler Optimizations

The compiler performs ahead-of-time translation from WAVE’s portable encoding to vendor-native instructions. There are opportunities for optimization passes such as instruction scheduling, register allocation improvements, and vendor-specific peephole optimizations.

Hardware Verification

If you have access to GPU hardware that WAVE targets - especially Intel Xe - running the verification suite and reporting results is a valuable contribution. See the Hardware Verification page for the methodology.

Spec Improvements

The WAVE specification defines the portable instruction set and binary format. Proposals to extend the spec with new primitives, refine edge-case semantics, or improve clarity are welcome as issues or pull requests.

Documentation

Improvements to these docs, additional examples, and tutorials for the language SDKs are always appreciated.

Code Style

• Rust code follows rustfmt defaults. Run cargo fmt before committing.
• All public items should have doc comments.
• Address clippy warnings - CI will reject code that produces them.

Pull Request Process

1. Fork the repository and create a feature branch from main.
2. Make your changes, ensuring that cargo test, cargo fmt --check, and cargo clippy all pass locally.
3. Write a clear commit message describing what the change does and why.
4. Open a pull request against main. The PR description should summarize the motivation and any design decisions.
5. CI will run automatically. Address any failures before requesting review.