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Contributing to TRACE

TRACE is a forensic workflow project. Contributions should improve reproducibility, evidentiary defensibility, analyst usability, or parser/reporting coverage without weakening provenance or chain-of-custody guarantees.

Contribution priorities

The highest-value contributions are:

  • parser support for real forensic export formats
  • stronger evidence-package integrity and provenance
  • report generation improvements for legal review
  • validation fixtures and benchmark coverage
  • reliability improvements for provider-backed classification

Ground rules

  • Do not introduce features that imply TRACE makes final forensic determinations.
  • Preserve human-in-the-loop review and override pathways.
  • Keep outputs auditable and schema-stable.
  • Prefer deterministic behavior and explicit failure modes over hidden automation.

Development workflow

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .
PYTHONPATH=src python3 -m unittest discover -s tests -v

Pull request expectations

Each pull request should include:

  • a concise problem statement
  • the forensic or product rationale for the change
  • test coverage or a clear explanation of why tests are not applicable
  • notes on any schema, output, or evidence-package changes

Scope discipline

TRACE is intended to integrate into existing digital forensic workflows, not replace them. Contributions that improve interoperability, validation, and defensibility are favored over speculative feature expansion.