# Contributing

**Pterodactyl does not accept Pull Requests (PRs) _for new functionality_** that was not previously approved by project
maintainers on GitHub discussions. It has become overwhelming to try and give the proper time and attention that such
complicated PRs tend to require. As a result, it is in the project's best interest to limit the scope of work on new
functionality to work done within the core project team.

PRs that address existing bugs or features **with a corresponding issue opened in our issue tracker** will continue to
be accepted and reviewed. Their scope is often significantly more targeted, and simply improving upon existing and well
defined logic.

## AI Assistance

If you use any type of AI assistance while developing for Pterodactyl **it must be disclosed** within the
corresponding review PR and you must identify what it was used for. All interaction with the community must be written
by a human. **You MUST NOT use AI to compose any PR titles, descriptions, or comments**, and must not use AI to
interact with the GitHub Discussions community.

## Responsible Disclosure

This is an in-depth project making use of many moving pieces. While we strive to keep everything as secure as possible
and welcome you to take a look at the code provided in this project yourself. We do ask that you be considerate of
others who are using the software and not publicly disclose security issues. Please see [`SECURITY.md`](/SECURITY.md)
for information on how to report security issues to the team.

## Contact Us

You can find us in a couple places online. First and foremost, we're active right here on GitHub. If you encounter a
bug or other problems, open an issue on here for us to take a look at it. Please make use of
our [GitHub Discussions](https://github.com/orgs/pterodactyl/discussions/categories/feature-requests)
for any feature requests, general questions, or help with the software.

You can also find us on [Discord](https://discord.gg/pterodactyl).
