chore: Add detailed contributing informations

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -36,10 +36,12 @@ There are three ways you can contribute to Malachite:
 **Anybody can participate in any stage of contribution**. We urge you to participate in the discussion around bugs and
 participate in reviewing PRs.
 
+> [!IMPORTANT]
+> Please see [`CONTRIBUTING_CODE.md`](./CONTRIBUTING_CODE.md) for detailed information about how to setup your environment, build Malachite, and run the test suite.
+
 ### Contributions Related to Spelling and Grammar
 
-At this time, we will not be accepting contributions that only fix spelling or grammatical errors in documentation, code or
-elsewhere.
+At this time, we will not be accepting contributions that only fix spelling or grammatical errors in documentation, code or elsewhere.
 
 ### Getting Help
 
@@ -51,7 +53,6 @@ welcome everyone to ask and offer help.
 
 _Adapted from the CometBFT and Reth contributing guides._
 
-
 [rust-coc]: https://www.rust-lang.org/en-US/conduct.html
 [tg]: https://t.me/MalachiteEngine
 [new-issue]: https://github.com/informalsystems/malachite/issues/new

CONTRIBUTING_CODE.md

@@ -0,0 +1,188 @@
+# Contributing to Malachite
+
+Thank you for your interest in contributing to Malachite, a Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus engine written in Rust.
+
+This document provides guidelines and instructions to help you set up your development environment and contribute to the project.
+
+## Table of Contents
+
+- [Setup](#setup)
+  - [Prerequisites](#prerequisites)
+  - [Environment Setup](#environment-setup)
+- [Building the Project](#building-the-project)
+- [Running Tests](#running-tests)
+  - [Unit Tests](#unit-tests)
+  - [Integration Tests](#integration-tests)
+  - [Model-Based Tests (MBT)](#model-based-tests-mbt)
+- [Code Style and Guidelines](#code-style-and-guidelines)
+- [Pull Request Process](#pull-request-process)
+- [Continuous Integration](#continuous-integration)
+
+## Setup
+
+### Prerequisites
+
+To build and test Malachite, you need the following tools:
+
+- **Rust**: Install the latest stable Rust toolchain using [rustup](https://rustup.rs/)
+- **Protocol Buffers Compiler (protoc)**: Required for Protobuf message serialization
+- **Node.js**: Required for running [Quint](https://quint-lang.org)
+- **Quint**: A formal specification language used for our model-based tests
+- **cargo-nextest**: An improved test runner for Rust
+
+### Environment Setup
+
+1. **Install Rust**:
+
+   Via [rustup.rs](https://rustup.rs):
+
+   ```bash
+   curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
+   ```
+
+2. **Install the Protocol Buffers Compiler**:
+
+   For Ubuntu/Debian:
+
+   ```bash
+   sudo apt-get install protobuf-compiler
+   ```
+
+   For macOS:
+
+   ```bash
+   brew install protobuf
+   ```
+
+   Please ensure that the version of `protoc` is at least v29.0.
+
+3. **Install Node.js**: (only required for running model-based tests)
+
+   Follow the instructions at [nodejs.org](https://nodejs.org/) or use a version manager:
+
+   ```bash
+   # Using nvm
+   curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.1/install.sh | bash
+   nvm install 21
+   nvm use 21
+   ```
+
+4. **Install Quint**: (only required for running model-based tests)
+
+   ```bash
+   npm install -g @informalsystems/quint
+   ```
+
+5. **Install cargo-nextest**:
+
+   ```bash
+   cargo install cargo-nextest
+   ```
+
+6. **Fork and clone the repository**:
+
+   ```bash
+   git clone https://github.com/USERNAME/malachite.git
+   cd malachite/code
+   ```
+
+## Building the Project
+
+To build the project, run:
+
+```bash
+cargo build
+```
+
+## Running Tests
+
+We have several categories of tests that help ensure the quality and correctness of our code.
+
+### Unit and Integration Tests
+
+```bash
+cargo all-tests
+```
+
+Or run specific integration tests:
+
+1. **Discovery**:
+
+   ```bash
+   cargo nextest run -p informalsystems-malachitebft-discovery-test
+   ```
+
+2. **Starknet app**:
+
+   ```bash
+   cargo nextest run -p informalsystems-malachitebft-starknet-test
+   ```
+
+3. **Test app**:
+
+   ```bash
+   cargo nextest run -p informalsystems-malachitebft-test
+   ```
+
+> [!IMPORTANT]
+> For the integration tests to run successfully it is important to ensure that only one integration test is running at a time,
+> by supplying the `--test-threads=1` flag to `cargo-nextest`. This is done automatically via the `code/.config/nextest.toml` configuration file,
+> but can be overridden from the command line if needed.
+
+> [!TIP]
+> If you are on a Linux-based system, you can use [`cargo-maelstrom`](https://github.com/maelstrom-software/maelstrom) to run each test in isolation, concurrently.
+>
+> ```bash
+> cargo install cargo-maelstrom
+> cargo maelstrom --slots 16
+> ```
+
+### Model-Based Tests (MBT)
+
+Model-based tests use formal specifications to generate test scenarios and validate system behavior against them.
+
+To run model-based tests:
+
+```bash
+cargo mbt
+```
+
+## Code Style and Guidelines
+
+We follow Rust's official style guidelines. Before submitting your code, please ensure:
+
+1. **Format your code** using `rustfmt`:
+
+   ```bash
+   cargo fmt
+   ```
+
+2. **Run Clippy** to catch common mistakes and ensure code quality:
+
+   ```bash
+   cargo lint
+   ```
+
+## Pull Request Process
+
+1. **Fork the repository** and create your branch from `main`.
+2. **Make your changes** and ensure all tests pass.
+3. **Update documentation** as needed.
+4. **Submit a pull request** with a clear description of the changes and any relevant issue numbers.
+5. **Address any feedback** from code reviewers.
+
+When submitting a PR, our CI will automatically run all tests, Clippy checks, and formatting verification.
+
+## Continuous Integration
+
+We use GitHub Actions for continuous integration. The following checks run on every PR:
+
+- **Unit Tests**: Ensures individual components work correctly.
+- **Integration Tests**: Validates component interactions.
+- **Model-Based Tests**: Checks against formal specifications.
+- **Clippy**: Catches common Rust mistakes and enforces best practices.
+- **Formatting**: Ensures consistent code style with rustfmt.
+
+---
+
+Thank you for contributing to Malachite! If you have any questions, feel free to open an issue or ask the maintainers.

code/.cargo/config.toml

@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 [alias]
-mbt         = "nextest run -p malachite-itf --all-features --no-fail-fast"
-integration = "nextest run --workspace --exclude malachite-itf --no-fail-fast"
+lint      = "clippy --all-targets --all-features -- -D warnings"
+mbt       = "nextest run --package informalsystems-malachitebft-test-mbt --no-fail-fast"
+all-tests = "nextest run --exclude informalsystems-malachitebft-test-mbt --no-fail-fast --workspace --test-threads=1"

code/.config/nextest.toml

@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 [profile.default]
 retries = 1
 fail-fast = false
+test-threads = 1
+failure-output = "immediate-final"
 
 [profile.default.junit]
 path = "junit.xml"