Skip to content

Getting Started

This repository contains the implemented v1 module, the public documentation site, and the supporting test suite.

What Contributors Should Do First

  • read What Ranger Is
  • read Ranger vs Scout
  • read Scope Boundary
  • read Deployment Variants
  • read the architecture pages in this order: System Overview, How Ranger Works, Audit Manifest, Implementation Architecture, Configuration Model
  • read the operator pages if your change affects how Ranger will be run
  • read the Roadmap before proposing structural or scope changes
  • review the grouped discovery-domain and output docs only after the core architecture story is clear
  • keep the technical runtime flow diagram open while reading Modules/Core/20-Runtime.ps1 and the collector files

Contribution Focus Right Now

The highest-value contributions at this stage are:

  • implementing and testing collectors and output generators
  • refining discovery-domain definitions and evidence boundaries
  • keeping docs aligned with current collector and manifest reality
  • writing Pester tests — unit, fixture-based, and simulation
  • keeping public docs aligned with current Microsoft Azure Local documentation where product facts are involved
  • making future-scope items visible as roadmap entries or separate issues instead of leaving them buried in planning prose

Testing Your Changes

Ranger uses Pester 5 for all tests. Run the full suite from the repo root:

Invoke-Pester -Path .\tests -Output Detailed

For simulation testing in MAPROOM (full pipeline validation without live connections), use the IIC synthetic manifest:

Invoke-Pester -Path .\tests\maproom\unit\Simulation.Tests.ps1 -Output Detailed

See Simulation Testing for a detailed guide to the simulation framework, the IIC canonical data standard, and how to regenerate the synthetic manifest fixture.