Contributing to pydeck

We encourage users to report bugs, fix them, and add features as desired. We support our contributors in the #pydeck channel in the OpenJS Slack workspace <https://slack-invite.openjsf.org>__. If you run into issues while using this guide, let us know.

For governance policy and code of conduct, please see the deck.gl contribution guidelines <https://deck.gl/docs/contributing>__.

Where to contribute ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

At its core, pydeck is three modules:

@deck.gl/jupyter-widget, a Javascript library that helps bind deck.gl to a Jupyter environment
@deck.gl/json, a Javascript library that converts JSON configurations to deck.gl visualizations
pydeck, the Python wrapper around deck.gl

To contribute to either of the first two, you can follow the deck.gl contribution guidelines.

Development installation of pydeck ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You will need uv <https://docs.astral.sh/uv/getting-started/installation/>__ and yarn <https://yarnpkg.com/en/docs/install>__ installed. Yarn builds deck.gl for use with your development installation of pydeck.

The following commands set up a virtual environment, build the entirety of deck.gl, and install development and testing dependencies:

.. code-block:: bash

    git clone https://github.com/visgl/deck.gl
    cd deck.gl/bindings/pydeck
    make setup-env
    source .venv/bin/activate
    make init

.. make prepare-jupyter was previously required here to enable the Jupyter widget integration (nbextension + labextension). This is not currently needed because .show() renders via HTML iframe in v0.9+. Restore this step when the ipywidgets-based widget path is re-enabled in pydeck/bindings/deck.py.

.. code-block:: bash

       make prepare-jupyter

Verify that this new local copy of pydeck works by running make test.

Local development of @deck.gl/jupyter-widget


To test local changes to ``@deck.gl/jupyter-widget``, open a separate terminal, rebuild
and start a local web server as follows:

.. code-block:: bash

        cd deck.gl/modules/jupyter-widget
        yarn run build
        # select any port you wish
        PYDECK_DEV_PORT=8000
        python -m http.server $PYDECK_DEV_PORT

Note the ``PYDECK_DEV_PORT`` which will be referenced in the instructions below.

Local development in Jupyter
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To test local changes to pydeck in a Jupyter notebook, set up a virtual environment as
described above, then start a local Jupyter notebook:

.. code-block:: bash

        jupyter notebook

.. CAUTION::
   Set ``export PYDECK_DEV_PORT=<port>`` before running the above command to include local changes to ``@deck.gl/jupyter-widget``.

Local development in Google Colab
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To test local changes to pydeck in a Google Colab notebook, first start a Jupyter runtime with
additional flags to trust WebSocket connections from the Colab frontend:

.. code-block:: bash

        jupyter notebook \
            --NotebookApp.allow_origin='https://colab.research.google.com' \
            --port=8888 \
            --NotebookApp.port_retries=0

.. CAUTION::
   Set ``export PYDECK_DEV_PORT=<port>`` before running the above command to include local changes to ``@deck.gl/jupyter-widget``.

After the notebook starts, copy the full (localhost) URL printed to the console. In a Google
Colab notebook, select *Connect to a local runtime* from the additional connection options
dropdown, and provide the local URL when prompted. After a reload, the Colab notebook will have
access to the local Jupyter runtime and its local pydeck build.

For more information, refer to Google Colab's `documentation for local runtimes <https://research.google.com/colaboratory/local-runtimes.html>`__.

Submitting a PR
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Deck.gl will run a suite of local tests both on commit and on push. On push, deck.gl will run browser tests, which will take a bit
longer than the commit hook tests. Ideally, these tests will pass locally before you push your branch to GitHub. Once pushed,
tests will also run on CI. Generally the deck.gl team will review your PR within 2-3 days.

Before submitting a PR, you should run ``make test`` to verify that your Python tests pass locally.
It may be helpful to run ``uv pip install -e .`` to rebuild pydeck locally. If you need to rebuild @deck.gl/json or @deck.gl/jupyter-widget,
you can run ``yarn bootstrap`` or the ``webpack`` commands within their individual directories.

Building the documentation
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

To build the documentation locally, run the following:

.. code-block:: bash

        cd deck.gl/bindings/pydeck/docs
        make clean && make html

You can find the homepage at ``pydeck/docs/_build/html/index.html``.

.. code-block:: bash

        python -m http.server -d _build/html

Publishing a release
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

See ``PUBLISH.md`` in the pydeck directory for the full release checklist.