The Zebra team is excited to see a clear increase in the quantity and quality of feedback on Zebra, particularly as Z3 stack developers prepare to transition from zcashd to Zebra.
We are also enjoying a high degree of collaboration among developers, which is accelerating progress on both Zebra and Zcash. In the short term, this feedback gives us actionable insights; in the long term, it helps us learn from the experience of others. We hope the broader ecosystem can benefit from these trends just as we have.
To support and amplify this momentum, we’d like to offer more transparency into how we process feedback and invite teams to leverage our familiarity with Zebra and the experience we’ve gained throughout its development.
Eager to Collaborate
Bugs and Straightforward Issues
If you’ve identified a bug in Zebra or would like to propose a missing feature, the best way to report it is by opening a GitHub issue. Please include:
- A brief explanation of the issue or missing feature
- Why the change or addition is needed
- A proposed solution or design, if possible
Pull Requests (PRs) that directly address these issues are welcome. However, we encourage checking in with us first to ensure that the work aligns with project priorities and is directed effectively.
General Problems and Design Collaboration
If you’re working on something that involves Zebra and would like to explore design options, reach out to us directly. Ideally, each org should have a point person for cross-org collaboration. This model worked well between ZF and Qedit on ZSA-related changes for NU7.
We’re happy to provide input on design approaches especially in areas like Rust best practices, node architecture, and testing patterns drawing from our work on Zebra’s extensive test suite.
Questions about Zebra
If you’re stuck or spending a lot of time trying to get something working with Zebra, please reach out. We can often provide quick guidance. In some cases having a timeboxed real-time conversation (e.g. call or informal chat) might be the most efficient way to problem-solve.
The best channels for contacting our team are Discord Zcash R&D, Slack, zcashd Deprecation calls, or GitHub discussions.
PR Review Process
When reviewing PRs, the Zebra team typically:
- Links to commits that address review comments
- References specific lines if helpful
- Provides further explanation in GitHub comments when needed
TL;DR
To improve inter-org collaboration on Zebra and related projects, we propose:
- Using GitHub as the source of truth for bugs and feature requests
- Designating a point person per team for cross-org design collaboration
- Having more real-time conversations (e.g. calls or informal chats) for unclear issues
- Agreeing on and following a consistent PR review process
We look forward to deepening our collaboration with you all—let’s keep rowing in the same direction.