Start here: how to contribute to Elephant

[mrsumanbiswas]

Welcome! Elephant is a privacy-first, open-source messenger: a Go server, a Flutter app, and Signal-Protocol end-to-end encryption. It's on its way into F-Droid, and we'd love help making it better. You don't need to know cryptography to contribute. Most of the work is ordinary app and server code.

Get started in three steps

1. Read CONTRIBUTING.md. It covers a 10-minute local setup (server via Docker Compose, the app on an emulator or your phone) and how PRs work.
2. Pick an issue and comment that you'd like to take it.
3. Open a PR into main.

Good first issues

Small and well scoped, and each one says which files to look at:

• [FEAT]: Tappable links in messages, with a confirmation before opening #130 Tappable links in messages, with a confirmation before opening (app)
• [FEAT]: Show an error with Try again when a chat's history fails to load #183 Show an error with Try again when a chat's history fails to load (app)
• [FEAT]: Server: send a WebSocket event when a message is edited #185 Server: send a WebSocket event when a message is edited (server)
• [FEAT]: Return JSON errors for unknown routes and wrong methods #181 Return JSON errors for unknown routes (server)
• [INFRA]: CI applies only some migrations, and one filename is wrong #180 Make CI apply every database migration (CI)
• [INFRA]: Set GOMEMLIMIT so the server stays inside small containers #182 Set GOMEMLIMIT for small containers (Docker)
• [CHORE]: Add down migrations for 002–012 #184 Add down migrations (database)

The full list is under the good first issue label.

Where the project is heading

The Elephant Roadmap board shows everything planned. Its Ready column lists issues that are free to pick up.

Milestone	Focus
v0.3.3 — Stability	Reliable live delivery, migrations on deploy, rate-limited sign-in
v0.4.0 — Conversations	Delete chats, block users, forward, edit profile, links, QR scanning
v0.5.0 — Privacy & group E2EE	Privacy settings, end-to-end encrypted groups
v0.6.0 — Multi-device	One account on several devices
v0.7.0 — Calls	1:1 voice calls over WebRTC

Looking for something bigger? Issues marked difficulty: hard (group E2EE #190, multi-device #194, calls #33) are split into sub-issues. Start by commenting on the design sub-issue.

Questions?

Ask in Q&A, or share ideas in Ideas. No question is too small. Thanks for being here!