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cybersnakeh edited this page Apr 22, 2026 · 2 revisions

Contributing

If you want to extend ZeusMod — a new cheat, a new debug primitive, UI work, docs — this page covers what to read, how to structure the change, and what reviewers will look for.

Short version. Build from source, add your change, run the manual test plan, open a PR from a feature branch against main, and wait for review. There is no squash merge — history is kept linear via merge commits so tags stay valid.

Before you start

Coding style

C++ (native/)

  • MSVC v143, /std:c++17, /W4, warnings treated as errors on new files.
  • clang-format rules live in .clang-format at the repo root. Format before committing: the easiest path is to enable "Format on save" pointing at that file in VS.
  • Prefer free functions in anonymous namespaces over static methods on helper classes.
  • Keep SEH (__try / __except) contained in helper functions that don't construct C++ objects — MSVC C2712 does not forgive it otherwise.
  • UObjectLookup and TrainerResolve own reflection resolution. Don't bypass them with hand-written AOB scans.
  • One cheat → one file (Trainer<CheatName>.cpp) if it needs more than a dozen lines of logic. Short cheats can live in the main Trainer.cpp.

JavaScript (app/)

  • ES2022, plain .js. No TypeScript, no JSX.
  • Preload bridge only — the renderer never touches fs, net, or child_process.
  • Prettier defaults: 4-space indent, single quotes, trailing comma es5.

Python (scripts/)

  • Target: 3.9+. Don't reach for syntax that needs 3.12.
  • Type hints on function signatures are encouraged.
  • Keep optional deps (rich, capstone, pyreadline3) actually optional — wrap their imports in try/except ImportError.
  • Every new command must be added to the COMMANDS catalog with a group, a desc, a usage, and an example. This drives both the DBG_PRIMITIVES gate and the help system.

Markdown (docs/wiki/, CHANGELOG.md, README.md)

  • Wrap at 76–80 columns where reasonable.
  • One # h1 per page, sub-sections under ## and below.
  • Cross-reference pages with relative links: [Feature Reference](Feature-Reference).

Commit convention

  • Imperative mood, ≤72 chars on the first line.
  • Group related changes into a single commit — no "wip" commits in the final PR.
  • Example subjects:
    • Release 1.5.0 — Native injector, AddModifierState hook, …
    • Fix CI: stop electron-builder from auto-publishing
    • Add Infinite Oxygen cheat
  • No co-author trailers and no AI attribution.

PR conventions

  • Branch name: feature/<slug> or fix/<slug>. Release branches are release/vX.Y.Z.
  • PRs target main. Keep them scoped — one feature per PR.
  • Use the PR template — in particular, fill the How it was tested checklist honestly. Reviewers will ask if it's empty.
  • Merges are always "Create a merge commit". Squash would break release tags.

Local manual test plan

No automated tests. The expected smoke test for any change is:

  1. Fresh build (Release | x64) succeeds.
  2. Fresh npm ci && npm start launches ZeusMod.
  3. Attach to a running Icarus succeeds (50–150 ms).
  4. The cheat you touched toggles on/off without side-effects.
  5. inspect.py -c "character" still returns an OK ... line.
  6. No regression in the other cheats — run through the full UI once before opening the PR.

If you change the pipe protocol or reflection resolution, add a line to the PR description stating so. Reviewers will ask for extra testing on those paths.

Docs are load-bearing

Changing a cheat, a hook, or the pipe surface without updating Feature Reference, Hook Catalog, Pipe Protocol, or Memory Layout will get the PR sent back.

For new releases, CHANGELOG.md comes first: the release CI pulls release notes out of it, so the changelog entry is user-visible.

Reporting without writing code

  • Bugs → bug report.
  • Feature ideas → feature request.
  • Architecture / strategy discussion → a plain issue. No Discussions tab yet.

Scope we won't take

  • Multiplayer bypasses. ZeusMod is single-player / private research only. We don't accept code that hides from anti-cheat or desynchronises the server's view of the world.
  • Exploits targeting other players. Same reason.
  • Closed-source binary blobs. Every binary dependency lives in native/third_party/ fetched from upstream; nothing opaque gets vendored.

Navigation

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Internals

Contributing

ZeusMod · Made by CyberSnake

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