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CONTRIBUTING (or CONTRIBUTING.md) is where project maintainers tell potential contributors how to participate without wasting anyone's time. GitHub recognises the file specifically — when someone opens an issue or PR on a repo that has a CONTRIBUTING file, GitHub surfaces a banner with a "Read the contributing guide" link, nudging contributors to read the rules before submitting.
Common contents: how to set up the dev environment (`git clone`, install dependencies, run tests), how to run the test suite, the branching and PR conventions, code style requirements, where to discuss before opening a PR (GitHub Discussions, Discord, mailing list), what to include in commit messages and PR descriptions, the project's code of conduct, and how to find good first issues. Larger projects may split this across CONTRIBUTING, CODE_OF_CONDUCT, and SECURITY files.
GitHub looks for CONTRIBUTING in three places: the repo root, `docs/`, or `.github/`. Markdown is the practical choice — every code-hosting platform renders it. CONTRIBUTING pairs with README (project overview), CODE_OF_CONDUCT (community rules), CHANGELOG (version history), LICENSE (legal terms), and SECURITY (vulnerability disclosure). Together these files form the standard set of project metadata that mature open-source projects ship with.
* Renders Markdown automatically