# Development - Contributing

First, you might want to see the basic ways to [help FastAPI and get help](help-fastapi.md){.internal-link target=_blank}.

## Developing

If you already cloned the <a href="https://github.com/tiangolo/fastapi" class="external-link" target="_blank">fastapi repository</a> and you want to deep dive in the code, here are some guidelines to set up your environment.

### Virtual environment with `venv`

                is not available, instead of erroring out, the dependency result will
                be `None`.

                This is useful when you want to have optional authentication.

                It is also useful when you want to have authentication that can be
                provided in one of multiple optional ways (for example, with OAuth2
                or in a cookie).
                """

                is not available, instead of erroring out, the dependency result will
                be `None`.

                This is useful when you want to have optional authentication.

                It is also useful when you want to have authentication that can be
                provided in one of multiple optional ways (for example, in HTTP Basic
                authentication or in an HTTP Bearer token).

    * This is particularly important for **security**, we'll see more of that below.

## `response_model` Parameter

There are some cases where you need or want to return some data that is not exactly what the type declares.

But you are not restricted to using some specific data model, class or type.

Do you want to have an `id` and `email` and not have any `username` in your model? Sure. You can use these same tools.

Do you want to just have a `str`? Or just a `dict`? Or a database class model instance directly? It all works the same way.

And it shows their true commitment to FastAPI and its **community** (you), as they not only want to provide you a **good service** but also want to make sure you have a **good and healthy framework**, FastAPI. 🙇

For example, you might want to try <a href="https://speakeasyapi.dev/?utm_source=fastapi+repo&utm_medium=github+sponsorship" class="external-link" target="_blank">Speakeasy</a>.

You can import it directly from `fastapi`:

```python
from fastapi import Request
```

!!! tip
    When you want to define dependencies that should be compatible with both HTTP and WebSockets, you can define a parameter that takes an `HTTPConnection` instead of a `Request` or a `WebSocket`.

    **FastAPI** provides the same `starlette.testclient` as `fastapi.testclient` just as a convenience for you, the developer. But it comes directly from Starlette.

!!! tip

            """
            An alternative name for the parameter field.

            This will be used to extract the data and for the generated OpenAPI.
            It is particularly useful when you can't use the name you want because it
            is a Python reserved keyword or similar.
            """
        ),
    ] = None,
    alias_priority: Annotated[
        Union[int, None],
        Doc(
            """

    Keep in mind that custom proprietary headers can be added <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers" class="external-link" target="_blank">using the 'X-' prefix</a>.