Keeping your contributions small and to the point helps both me and yourself.
It'll help the PR review and the speed of improvements.
If you have a big feature in mind? Go for it!
Does it require an entire refactor of parts or all of the program? Maybe make sure to do step 0 first.

Steps (for first timers)

Reach out (Optional)

If you want to let me know you want to do something to contribute, please do!
Maybe I'm already working on the thing you wanted to build, or someone else is.
Creating an issue is even better!

Fork the repository

By forking you can create your own working set of code.
Whether you keep that fork public or private is up to you!

Keep in mind, forking is alright, but it's best with the intent to contribute back.
After all, instead of having 5 slightly different versions and products, it might be nicer to have 1 much better version.

Create a Draft PR as soon as possible!

As soon as you've found some times to create an initial version, please create a draft PR.
That way you can let me and everyone know it's being worked on and people can see what conflicts might arise with their own changes.

Test, test, test

With DCS and Lua there's a bunch of edge cases that are really hard to get to.
However, you kinda need to make sure most if not all cases are caught and tested.
Since automated testing for now doesn't seem feasible, please make sure to verify and test functionality after touching stuff.

Finalise and publish the PR.

Finalise the PR and let the maintainers know!
We can all have a look and discuss the changes.