How to contribute to the Edge Microvisor Toolkit? A Guide for Edge AI Developers

[biapalmeiro]

The Edge Microvisor Toolkit (EMT) is an open-source project designed to help developers build secure, immutable edge systems. If you're an Edge AI developer passionate about infrastructure, security, or embedded innovation—this is your chance to get involved.

Let's go through the contribution process, highlights key areas for collaboration, and shows how to set up your workflow to successfully submit pull requests (PRs) to the project.

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Why Contribute?

EMT is actively developed and maintained by the open-edge-platform community and always welcomes contributions, particularly in:

• The build infrastructure pipeline

• Enhancing or optimizing microvisor image definitions

• Supporting new edge hardware platforms

• Implementing new security or runtime features

Whether you want to propose an enhancement or build something yourself, there’s room to make a real impact.

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For new feature requests, start with a Design Proposal

Before diving into the code, all new larger features or architectural changes should begin with a Design Proposal, using the standard template and be submitted via a Architecture Decision Record (ADR) GitHub issue.

This ensures the community aligns on direction before implementation starts. Be thorough—detailed context helps maintainers and stakeholders assess and prioritize effectively.

Your proposal should include:

Template Outline:

Design Proposal: [Title]

Author(s): [Author Name, Co-Author Name]

Last updated: [Date]

Abstract [A short summary and the problem being solved.]

Proposal [A precise statement of the proposed change. Diagrams welcome.]

Rationale [Discuss alternatives, trade-offs, and why this approach was selected.]

Affected components and Teams [List the components/modules impacted and which teams should be involved.]

Implementation Plan [Step-by-step plan aligned with the quarterly release cadence.]

Open Issues [Any unresolved technical or coordination questions.]

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Contribution Workflow

All contributions follow this branching and release model:

• Target branch for PRs: 3.0-dev

• Official releases are published from: 3.0

Pull Requests should:

• Be tested and validated

• Include updated .signatures.json hashes for sources
  (use sha256sum or make input-srpms)

• Update cgmanifest.json (alphabetically sorted)
  (.github/workflows/validate-cg-manifest.sh SPECS/<pkg>/<pkg>.spec)

Note: Only contributions targeting the SPECS directory are considered stable. Anything under SPECS-EXTENDED is experimental and requires custom builds.

Here’s a step-by-step summary of the EMT contribution flow:

1. Fork and clone the EMT repository.

2. Base your work on the 3.0-dev branch.

3. Create a feature branch from 3.0-dev.

4. Make your changes.

5. Follow checklist (below) before opening a PR.

6. Submit a PR targeting 3.0-dev.

Important: The 3.0-dev branch is for development. It gets merged into the 3.0 release branch by maintainers following testing and validation.

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Packaging and Build Structure

EMT follows Azure Linux’s RPM packaging conventions and uses two directories:

• SPECS: Officially supported and published packages

• SPECS-EXTENDED: Experimental packages requiring self-built images

When working with packages:

• Validate the cgmanifest file (used for tracking package sources):

  bash

  CopyEdit

  .github/workflows/validate-cg-manifest.sh SPECS/<package>/<package>.spec

• Update source file hashes in *.signatures.json files using:

  bash

  CopyEdit

  cd toolkit sudo make input-srpms REBUILD_TOOLS=y SRPM_FILE_SIGNATURE_HANDLING=update

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Licensing

All contributions are under the MIT license. By contributing, you assert that:

• Your contribution is your own.

• It can be published under the MIT license.

• You grant the rights to include it in EMT.

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What Makes a Good Contribution?

• Clear, modular code

• Updated documentation or comments

• Validation steps or test cases (if applicable)

• Alignment with existing build and packaging conventions

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🌐 Join the Edge Microvisor Community

EMT is more than a toolkit—it's a collaborative project to redefine what's possible at the intelligent edge. Your contributions help improve edge computing for a wide range of industries, from AI-driven robotics to industrial automation.

Whether you're filing an issue, building an extension, or reviewing code—your effort counts. :)