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Contributing to mRemoteNG

Thank you for your interest in contributing to mRemoteNG! This guide will help you get started.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

  • Windows 10/11 (mRemoteNG is a Windows-only WinForms application)
  • Visual Studio 2022 or later with the following workloads:
    • .NET desktop development
    • Desktop development with C++ (for COM reference support)
  • .NET 10 SDK (or later)
  • Git

Building

Important: Do NOT use dotnet build — it fails on COM references (MSB4803). mRemoteNG requires full MSBuild from Visual Studio.

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/mRemoteNG/mRemoteNG.git
cd mRemoteNG

# Build using the build script (auto-detects VS installation)
pwsh -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File build.ps1

The output will be in mRemoteNG/bin/x64/Release/.

Running Tests

# Build test projects (from VS Developer Command Prompt)
msbuild mRemoteNGTests\mRemoteNGTests.csproj -restore -m "-verbosity:minimal" "-p:Configuration=Release" "-p:Platform=x64"

# Run tests (use the DLL path, not the .csproj)
dotnet test "mRemoteNGTests\bin\x64\Release\mRemoteNGTests.dll" --verbosity normal

Branch Naming Convention

Prefix When Example
fix/<issue>-<desc> Bug fix fix/2735-rdp-smartsize-focus
feat/<issue>-<desc> New feature feat/1634-protocol-token
security/<desc> Security hardening security/ldap-sanitizer
chore/<desc> Infra, deps, CI chore/sqlclient-sni-runtime

Rules:

  • Include the issue number after / when an issue exists
  • Lowercase, kebab-case, max 50 chars after prefix
  • No tool prefixes (codex/, copilot/) in branch names

Pull Request Workflow

  1. Fork the repository
  2. Create a branch from v1.78.2-dev: git checkout -b fix/<issue>-<desc>
  3. Make your changes
  4. Ensure all tests pass locally
  5. Push and create a PR targeting v1.78.2-dev on upstream

PR Guidelines

  • Keep PRs focused — one fix or feature per PR
  • Include the issue number in the PR title (e.g., "Fix #2735: RDP SmartSize focus loss")
  • Add tests for new functionality
  • Don't introduce new warnings

Architecture Overview

See ARCHITECTURE.md for a detailed breakdown of the system layers.

Key directories:

  • mRemoteNG/Connection/ — Connection data model and protocol implementations
  • mRemoteNG/Config/ — Serializers, settings, and data providers
  • mRemoteNG/Security/ — Encryption, key derivation, credential handling
  • mRemoteNG/UI/ — WinForms controls, windows, menus, and theme support
  • mRemoteNG/Tree/ — Connection tree model and operations
  • ExternalConnectors/ — Vault integrations (1Password, SecretServer, Passwordstate)

Code Style

  • Follow existing patterns in the codebase
  • Use [SupportedOSPlatform("windows")] on all new public classes
  • Prefer new() target-typed construction where the type is obvious
  • Use file-scoped namespaces only in new files if the surrounding code uses them
  • No unnecessary using statements

Reporting Issues

  • Use GitHub Issues to report bugs
  • Include your mRemoteNG version, OS version, and steps to reproduce
  • Attach the error log from %AppData%\mRemoteNG\ if applicable