> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://kleros-mintlify-6ebc7975.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Development Workflow

> How Kleros contributors track tasks with GitHub Issues, branch off feature branches, review pull requests, and cut releases across protocol and frontend repos.

General workflow for contributing to Kleros repositories.

***

## Task Tracking

Kleros uses GitHub Issues for task tracking. Each issue follows a lifecycle:

1. **Open**: Issue is created and described
2. **Assigned**: A contributor takes ownership
3. **In Progress**: Work is being done on a feature branch
4. **In Review**: Pull request submitted, awaiting review
5. **Done**: Merged to the target branch

For the kleros-v2 monorepo, issues may be organized across packages (contracts, web, subgraph, bots, SDK).

***

## Branching

| Branch             | Purpose                                              |
| ------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------- |
| `master` or `main` | Stable release branch                                |
| `dev`              | Development branch (kleros-v2 uses `dev` as default) |
| `feat/<name>`      | Feature branches                                     |
| `fix/<name>`       | Bug fix branches                                     |
| `docs/<name>`      | Documentation branches                               |

Create feature branches from the development branch. After merging, create a fresh branch from the updated development branch rather than reusing the merged branch.

***

## Pull Requests

* One PR per feature or fix
* Include a clear description of what changed and why
* Reference the GitHub issue number
* Ensure CI checks pass before requesting review
* Request review from at least one team member

***

## Commits

Kleros repositories use [Conventional Commits](https://conventionalcommits.org/):

```
feat: add appeal funding to dispute kit
fix: correct extraData encoding for court ID
docs: update deployment addresses
chore: bump dependencies
```

The kleros-v2 repo enforces this via commitlint.

***

## Releases

Releases are tagged in Git and published to npm where applicable (e.g., `@kleros/kleros-v2-contracts`, `@kleros/kleros-sdk`).

Smart contract deployments follow a separate process. See [Smart Contract Workflow](/contributing/smart-contract-workflow).