gradio/CONTRIBUTING.md

Contributing to Gradio

More than 200 awesome developers have contributed to the gradio library, and we'd be thrilled if you would like to be the next contributor!

Prerequisites:

• Python 3.8+
• Node.js v16.14+ (only needed if you are making changes to the frontend)
• pnpm 8.1+ (only needed if you are making changes to the frontend)

🏡 Setup for local development

There are a few ways to install and run Gradio.

🛠️ Install Gradio locally from main

• Clone this repo
• Navigate to the repo directory and (from the root directory) run

bash scripts/install_gradio.sh

• Build the front end

bash scripts/build_frontend.sh

• Install development requirements

(Note that it is highly recommended to use a virtual environment running Python 3.9 since the versions of Gradio's dependencies are pinned)

bash scripts/install_test_requirements.sh

If you have a different Python version and conflicting packages during the installation, please first run:

bash scripts/create_test_requirements.sh

📦 Using dev containers

You can alternatively use dev containers. This is supported on all platforms (macOS/Windows/Linux), as well as on GitHub Codespaces.

Prerequisites:

• An editor which supports dev containers, like VS Code
• Docker support on the host computer:
  • macOS: Docker Desktop 2.0+
  • Windows: Docker Desktop 2.0+
  • Linux: Docker CE/EE 18.06+ and Docker Compose 1.21+
• If using VS Code, the Dev Containers extension

Steps:

• Clone repository
• Open it in your editor
• For VS Code, execute Dev Containers: Reopen in container command

For detailed instructions, please see the Dev Containers tutorial.

🧱 Structure of the Repository

If you're a newcomer to Gradio, we recommend getting familiar with the overall structure of the repository so that you can focus on the part of the source code you'd like to contribute to.

• /gradio: contains the Python source code for the library
  • /gradio/interface.py: contains the Python source code for the core Interface class
  • /gradio/blocks.py: contains the Python source code for the core Blocks class
  • /gradio/components/: the directory that contains the Python source code for all of the Gradio components.
• /js: contains the HTML/JS/CSS source code for the library (start here for frontend changes)
  • /js/_website: contains the code for the Gradio website (www.gradio.app). See the README in the /js/_website folder for more details
• /test: contains Python unit tests for the library
• /demo: contains demos that are used in the documentation, you can find Gradio examples over here.

🚀 Run a Gradio app

You can get started by creating an app.py file in the root:

import gradio as gr

with gr.Blocks() as demo:
   gr.Button()
    
if __name__ == "__main__":
   demo.launch()

then run:

gradio app.py

This will start the backend server in reload mode, which will watch for changes in the gradio folder and reload the app if changes are made. By default, Gradio will launch on port 7860. You can also just use python app.py, but this won't automatically trigger updates.

If you're making frontend changes, start the frontend server:

pnpm dev

This will open a separate browser tab. By default, Gradio will launch this on port 9876. Any changes to the frontend will also reload automatically in the browser. For more information about developing in the frontend, you can refer to js/README.md.

We also have demos of all our components in the /gradio/demo directory. To get our simple gradio Chatbot running locally:

gradio demo/chatbot_simple/run.py

🧪 Testing

We use Pytest, Playwright and Vitest to test our code.

• The Python tests are located in /test. To run these tests:

bash scripts/run_all_tests.sh

• The frontend unit tests are any defined with the filename *.test.ts. To run them:

pnpm test

• Browser tests are located in js/app/test and are defined as *spec.ts files. To run browser tests:

pnpm test:browser

To build the frontend code before running browser tests:

pnpm test:browser:full

You can also run browser tests in the UI mode by adding the --ui flag:

pnpm test:browser --ui

If you have made any significant visual changes to a component, we encourage you to add a new Storybook story or amend an existing one to reflect them. You can create a new story with a *.stories.svelte file.

🕸️ Gradio Website

We also welcome any contributions to our website.

First, build the website:

pnpm build:cdn-local

then serve the website build:

pnpm preview:cdn-local

This will serve a build of gradio.js on port 4321. You can then navigate to js/_website/src/routes/+layout.svelte and replace the source of the website build from:

<script type="module" src="https://gradio.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/{version}/gradio.js"></script>

to

<script type="module" src="http://localhost:4321/gradio.js"></script>

You should now be able to view a local version of the website at http://localhost:4321.

📚 Component Storybook

If you would like to fix an issue or contribute to our Storybook, you can get it running locally with:

pnpm storybook

📮 Submitting PRs

All PRs should be against main, and ideally should address an open issue, unless the change is small. Direct commits to main are blocked, and PRs require an approving review to merge into main. By convention, the Gradio maintainers will review PRs when:

• An initial review has been requested
• A clear, descriptive title has been assigned to the PR
• A maintainer (@abidlabs, @aliabid94, @aliabd, @AK391, @dawoodkhan82, @pngwn, @freddyaboulton, @hannahblair) is tagged in the PR comments and asked to complete a review

🧹 We ask that you make sure initial CI checks are passing before requesting a review. One of the Gradio maintainers will merge the PR when all the checks are passing. You can safely ignore the Vercel and Spaces checks, which only run under maintainers' pull requests.

Don't forget the format your code before pushing:

bash scripts/format_backend.sh

bash scripts/format_frontend.sh

Thank you for taking the time to contribute to our project!

❓ Need help getting started?

• Browse issues with the "good first issue" label. These are issues we think are good for newcomers.
• Ask the Gradio community in our Discord
• Raise an issue for a feature or a bug you want to tackle

🚧 Troubleshooting

ERROR: Error loading ASGI app. Could not import module "<filename>"

Verify that you've used the correct filename of your gradio app, and that you're in the directory of the file.

---

ERR_PNPM_RECURSIVE_RUN_FIRST_FAIL @gradio/app@1.0.0 build:local: vite build --mode production:local --emptyOutDir "--emptyOutDir"

Delete /node_modules and pnpm-lock.yaml:

rm -rf node_modules/
rm pnpm-lock.yaml

and run the install scripts:

bash scripts/install_gradio.sh
bash scripts/build_frontend.sh

---

Could these guidelines be clearer? Feel free to open a PR to help us faciltiate open-source contributions!