Join & Contribute

UNVTD is an open UN/CEFACT project. Anyone can follow the work; contributing requires a GitLab account and, for formal membership, UN/CEFACT expert registration.

Stay Connected

The fastest way to get involved is to join the community channels:

• Slack — uncefact.slack.com  · Get an invite 
• Mailing list — unvtd@gaggle.email · Subscribe by sending any email to unvtd+subscribe@gaggle.email

GitLab Access

All specification work happens on the UNVTD GitLab repository .

1. Register an account  on the UN’s GitLab instance
2. Allow around three business days for UNICC approval — activate the link in the email promptly (it expires quickly)
3. Set up mandatory two-factor authentication in your account settings
4. You can now raise issues and comment on any discussion

To make edits directly, request edit access from a Working Group lead on Slack or via the mailing list.

Expert Registration

For formal contributing member status — required to vote on decisions and have contributions attributed under the UN/CEFACT IPR framework — complete the UN/CEFACT expert registration . This includes accepting the IPR policy; all contributions become UN intellectual property.

Raising an Issue

Issues are the primary way to propose changes, flag errors, or start a discussion.

1. Go to Issues  in the repository
2. Click New issue
3. Write a clear title and description — include the affected document or section

Contributing an Edit

Quick edit — single file, no coding required

1. Find the page you want to change in the repository 
2. Click Edit → Edit single file
3. Make your changes
4. Choose Start a new merge request with these changes and submit
5. A Working Group lead will review and merge

Multiple files — Web IDE

1. Click Edit → Web IDE
2. Navigate the app/ directory and edit as many files as needed
3. Commit to a new branch and open a merge request

Local development

For larger contributions, clone the repository and run the site locally:

git clone https://opensource.unicc.org/un/unece/uncefact/spec-unvtd.git
cd spec-unvtd
npm install
npm run dev

The site opens at http://localhost:3000/unece/uncefact/spec-unvtd/. Pages live in the app/ directory as .mdx files.

Contributing a Document Schema

To add a new trade document to the specification, follow these steps in addition to the general edit workflow above.

1. Raise an issue proposing the document — include its name, role in trade, and relevant KTDDE  UID(s). Discuss with the team before investing in a full implementation.
2. Create the schema as public/<document-name>-schema.yaml, following the structure of an existing schema such as commercial-invoice-schema.yaml.
3. Register it in scripts/generate-ktdde-compliance.mjs by adding an entry to the DOCUMENTS array.
4. Add KTDDE mappings for each applicable UID in scripts/ktdde-manual-mappings.json. Use null for intentional gaps; every relevant UID needs an explicit entry.
5. Regenerate the compliance data: npm run compliance
6. Submit a merge request referencing the issue. It will be reviewed at the next bi-weekly meeting.