Contributing

Thanks for your interest in contributing to RustTube.

This project is a Windows-focused Rust GUI for yt-dlp, and contributions are welcome.

Ways to Contribute

You can help by:

• reporting bugs
• suggesting new features
• improving the UI
• improving documentation
• fixing code issues
• improving the build and release workflow

Before You Start

Please keep these general goals in mind:

• simple user experience
• stable downloads
• clear and practical UI
• Windows-first behavior
• maintainable Rust code

Development Setup

1. Clone the repository
2. Open it in your editor
3. Make sure Rust is installed
4. Run the app locally:

cargo run

Build Workflow

RustTube includes a build script for packaging and installer creation:

.\scripts\build.ps1

You can also use:

scripts\build.bat

Code Style

When contributing code:

• keep changes focused
• avoid unnecessary complexity
• prefer clear and readable Rust
• follow the existing project structure
• keep Windows behavior in mind
• avoid breaking the simple workflow of the app

UI Changes

For UI contributions:

• keep the interface easy to understand
• avoid clutter
• keep layout practical for smaller window sizes
• make sure the sidebar and log area remain usable

Build and Installer Changes

If you change build or installer behavior:

• keep the setup process simple
• avoid unnecessary admin requirements
• keep per-user installation behavior in mind
• make sure the generated installer still works with the current release flow

Documentation Contributions

Documentation improvements are very welcome, especially for:

• installation steps
• usage explanations
• tool management
• troubleshooting
• build and release workflow

Pull Requests

If you submit a pull request:

• keep it focused on one main topic
• explain what changed
• mention any user-visible behavior changes
• mention build or installer changes if relevant

Bug Reports

Good bug reports usually include:

• what you tried to do
• what happened instead
• log output if relevant
• screenshots if helpful
• Windows version if relevant
• RustTube version

Feature Requests

Feature requests are easiest to evaluate when they explain:

• what problem you want to solve
• why the current behavior is not enough
• what kind of user experience you expect

Notes

RustTube depends heavily on yt-dlp, so some issues may come from:

• upstream site changes
• runtime/tool issues
• ffmpeg or deno requirements
• yt-dlp extraction behavior

In those cases, logs and reproduction steps are especially helpful.