---
title: Contributing
description: Conventions and workflows for developers contributing code to InfraKitchen.
---

Follow these conventions when a change touches the areas below — they keep the codebase consistent and make reviews faster.

## Database Migrations

InfraKitchen's backend uses [SQLAlchemy](https://www.sqlalchemy.org/) as its ORM to define database models, and [Alembic](https://alembic.sqlalchemy.org/) to manage schema migrations.

When adding or changing a SQLAlchemy model, generate a migration with Alembic **autogenerate**. Do not write migration files by hand, and do not copy/rename an existing migration as a shortcut — autogenerate keeps the migration history consistent with the models.

**Steps:**

1. **Make the model changes**

    Make the model changes in `server/src/`.

2. **Generate the migration**

    From the `server/` directory, run:

    ```bash
    cd server
    alembic -c src/alembic.ini revision --autogenerate -m "<describe the change>"
    ```

    If the virtual environment isn't activated, prefix with `uv run`:

    ```bash
    uv run alembic -c src/alembic.ini revision --autogenerate -m "<describe the change>"
    ```

    :::tip
    Use a short, descriptive message — it becomes part of the migration file name, so make it easy to recognize later.
    :::

3. **Review the generated migration**

    Open the generated file in `server/src/alembic/versions/` and review it carefully. Autogenerate is reliable for most changes, but it can **miss or misdetect** things like column/table renames, enum value changes, or server-side defaults — fix the generated script by hand if needed before moving on.

4. **Commit**

    Commit the migration file in the **same pull request** as the model change it corresponds to — do not split them across PRs.