---
title: Developer Guide
slug: Developer_Guide
tags:
  - Developing Mozilla
  - NeedsTranslation
  - TopicStub
translation_of: Mozilla/Developer_guide
---
<p>Whether you're an old hand or just getting started, articles you can find starting from this page will help you while you're working on Mozilla development.</p>
<table class="topicpage-table">
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>
        <h2 class="Documentation" id="Documentation_topics">Documentation topics</h2>
        <dl>
          <dt>
            <a href="/en-US/docs/Introduction" title="Introduction">Getting Started</a></dt>
          <dd>
            A step-by-step beginner's guide to getting involved with Mozilla.</dd>
        </dl>
        <dl>
          <dt>
            <a class="internal" href="/en-US/docs/Developer_Guide/Source_Code" title="en-US/docs/Developer_Guide/Source_Code">Working with Mozilla Source Code</a></dt>
          <dd>
            A code overview, how to get the code, and the coding style guide.</dd>
          <dt>
            <a class="internal" href="/en-US/docs/Developer_Guide/Build_Instructions" title="en-US/docs/Developer_Guide/Build_Instructions">Build Instructions</a></dt>
          <dd>
            How to build Firefox, Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, or other Mozilla applications.</dd>
          <dt>
            <a href="/en-US/docs/Developer_Guide/Development_process_overview" title="en-US/docs/Developer Guide/Development process overview">Development process overview</a></dt>
          <dd>
            An overview of the entire Mozilla development process.</dd>
          <dt>
            <a href="/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Multiple_Firefox_Profiles" title="en-US/docs/Mozilla/Multiple_Firefox_Profiles">Managing multiple profiles</a></dt>
          <dd>
            When working with prerelease versions of Firefox, it's often helpful to have multiple Firefox profiles, such as one for each channel, or for different kinds of testing.</dd>
          <dt>
            <a class="internal" href="/en-US/docs/Mozilla_automated_testing" title="en-US/docs/Mozilla automated testing">Automated Testing</a></dt>
          <dd>
            How to run Mozilla's automated tests, and how to write new tests.</dd>
          <dt>
            <a class="internal" href="/en-US/docs/Developer_Guide/How_to_Submit_a_Patch" title="en-US/docs/Getting your patch in the tree">How to submit a patch</a></dt>
          <dd>
            After getting your patch written, you need to get it checked into the tree. This article explains the review process and how to get your patch approved.</dd>
          <dt>
            <a href="/en-US/docs/Developer_Guide/Getting_documentation_updated" title="en-US/docs/Developer_Guide/Getting documentation updated">Getting documentation updated</a></dt>
          <dd>
            How to ensure that documentation is kept up to date as you develop.</dd>
          <dt>
            <a class="internal" href="/en-US/docs/Mozilla_Modules_and_Module_Ownership" title="en-US/docs/Mozilla Modules and Module Ownership">Mozilla modules and module ownership</a></dt>
          <dd>
            This article provides information about Mozilla's modules, what the role of a module owner is, and how module owners are selected.</dd>
          <dt>
            <a class="internal" href="/en-US/docs/Code_snippets" title="en-US/docs/Code_snippets">Code snippets</a></dt>
          <dd>
            Useful code samples for a wide variety of things you might need to figure out how to do.</dd>
          <dt>
            <a class="internal" href="/en-US/docs/Mozilla_Development_Strategies" title="en-US/docs/Mozilla Development Strategies">Mozilla development strategies</a></dt>
          <dd>
            Tips for how to make the most of your time working on the Mozilla project.</dd>
          <dt>
            <a class="internal" href="/en-US/docs/Debugging" title="en-US/docs/Debugging">Debugging</a></dt>
          <dd>
            Find helpful tips and guides for debugging Mozilla code.</dd>
          <dt>
            <a href="/en-US/docs/Performance" title="en-US/docs/Performance">Performance</a></dt>
          <dd>
            Performance guides and utilities to help you make your code perform well (and to play nicely with others).</dd>
          <dt>
            <a class="internal" href="/en-US/docs/The_Mozilla_platform" title="en-US/docs/The Mozilla platform">The Mozilla platform</a></dt>
          <dd>
            Information about the workings of the Mozilla platform.</dd>
          <dt>
            <a href="/en-US/docs/Developer_Guide/Adding_APIs_to_the_navigator_object" title="en-US/docs/Developer_Guide/Adding_APIs_to_the_navigator_object">Adding APIs to the navigator object</a> {{ gecko_minversion_inline("9.0") }}</dt>
          <dd>
            How to augment the {{ domxref("window.navigator") }} object with additional APIs.</dd>
          <dt>
            <a href="/en-US/docs/Developer_Guide/Interface_Compatibility" title="en-US/docs/Developer Guide/Interface Compatibility">Interface Compatibility</a></dt>
          <dd>
            Guidelines for modifying scriptable and binary APIs in Mozilla.</dd>
          <dt>
            <a href="/en-US/docs/Developer_Guide/Customizing_Firefox" title="en-US/docs/Developer Guide/Customizing Firefox">Customizing Firefox</a></dt>
          <dd>
            Information about creating customized versions of Firefox.</dd>
          <dt>
            <a href="/en-US/docs/Developer_Guide/Virtual_ARM_Linux_environment" title="Virtual ARM Linux environment">Virtual ARM Linux environment</a></dt>
          <dd>
            How to set up an ARM emulator running Linux for testing ARM-specific, but not necessarily platform-specific, code. Useful for mobile developers.</dd>
          <dt>
            <a href="/en-US/docs/Introduction/Obsolete_Build_Caveats_and_Tips" title="Obsolete Build Caveats and Tips">Obsolete Build Caveats and Tips</a></dt>
          <dd>
            A place to put build tips which are no longer relevant to building the latest version of the code from main but are relevant when building old codebases.</dd>
        </dl>
      </td>
      <td>
        <h2 class="Tools" id="Tools">Tools</h2>
        <dl>
          <dt>
            <a class="link-https" href="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/" title="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/">Bugzilla</a></dt>
          <dd>
            The <a class="internal" href="/en-US/docs/Bugzilla" title="en-US/docs/Bugzilla">Bugzilla</a> database used to track issues for Mozilla projects.</dd>
          <dt>
            <a class="external" href="http://mxr.mozilla.org/" title="http://mxr.mozilla.org/">MXR</a></dt>
          <dd>
            Browse and search the Mozilla source code repository on the Web.</dd>
          <dt>
            <a class="external" href="http://bonsai.mozilla.org/cvsqueryform.cgi" title="http://bonsai.mozilla.org/cvsqueryform.cgi">Bonsai</a></dt>
          <dd>
            The <a class="internal" href="/en-US/docs/Bonsai" title="en-US/docs/Bonsai">Bonsai</a> tool lets you find out who changed what file in the repository, and when they did it.</dd>
          <dt>
            <a class="internal" href="/en-US/docs/Mercurial" title="en-US/docs/Mercurial">Mercurial</a></dt>
          <dd>
            The distributed version-control system used to manage Mozilla's source code.</dd>
          <dt>
            <a class="external" href="http://tinderbox.mozilla.org/showbuilds.cgi" title="http://tinderbox.mozilla.org/showbuilds.cgi">Tinderbox</a></dt>
          <dd>
            <a class="internal" href="/en-US/docs/Tinderbox" title="en-US/docs/Tinderbox">Tinderbox</a> shows the status of the tree (whether or not it currently builds successfully).  Check this before checking in and out, to be sure you're working with a working tree.</dd>
          <dt>
            <a class="internal" href="/en-US/docs/Crash_reporting" title="en-US/docs/Crash reporting">Crash tracking</a></dt>
          <dd>
            Information about the <a class="link-https" href="https://crash-reports.mozilla.com/reports" title="https://crash-reports.mozilla.com/reports">Socorro</a> and <a class="external" href="http://talkback-public.mozilla.org/search/start.jsp" title="http://talkback-public.mozilla.org/search/start.jsp">Talkback</a> crash reporting systems.</dd>
          <dt>
            <a class="external" href="http://graphs.mozilla.org/" title="http://graphs.mozilla.org/">Performance tracking</a></dt>
          <dd>
            See performance information for Mozilla projects.</dd>
          <dt>
            <a href="/en-US/docs/Developer_Guide/Callgraph" title="en-US/docs/Developing Mozilla/Callgraph">Callgraph</a></dt>
          <dd>
            A tool to help perform static analysis of the Mozilla code by generating callgraphs automatically.</dd>
          <dt>
            <a class="external" href="http://www.mozilla.org/community/developer-forums.html" title="http://www.mozilla.org/community/developer-forums.html">Developer forums</a></dt>
          <dd>
            A topic-specific list of discussion forums where you can talk about Mozilla development issues.</dd>
          <dt>
            <a class="external" href="http://www.brianbondy.com/mozilla/cheatsheet/" title="http://www.brianbondy.com/mozilla/cheatsheet/">Mozilla Platform Development Cheat Sheet</a></dt>
          <dd>
            Brian Bondy's list of frequently referenced information for platform developers.</dd>
        </dl>
      </td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>
<p> </p>