Development documentation

This is the in-progress lota-next branch. For the released version, see the stable documentation.

Developer and testing policy

All new work lands on the lota-next integration branch first.

main carries only stable, released code.

See ../branching for the full model and the release flow.

Contents

• Where the checks run -- CI triggers, the Go toolchain, and dependency rules.

• Testing policy -- test layers and the surface-specific contracts they pin.

• Local patch checks and the PR quality gate -- check-patch, format-patch, and the hotpath documentation contract.

• How the fuzzers work -- Go, C, and Syzkaller fuzzing.

• Release candidates and promotion -- cutting -rc tags and promoting to main.

• BPF LSM program coding -- verifier-acceptance rules and device/inode identity in the kernel programs.

• Cross-component contracts -- wire-format, store-migration, and installer-probe surfaces two components must keep in sync.

• The license boundary -- which zone each path belongs to, and the one-way dependency rule the gate enforces.

• Public API and ABI surface -- what an integrator may build against, and what a change to it costs.