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CONTRIBUTING.md

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+# Contributing to Calam
+
+Thank you for your interest in contributing to Calam! There are many ways to contribute
+and we appreciate all of them.
+
+To get a quick overview of the crates and structure of the project take a look at the
+[./docs](./docs) folder.
+
+If you have any questions please ask them in the IRC channel #calam at libera.chat or if unsure where
+to start out when working on a concrete issue drop a comment on the related issue for mentoring
+instructions.
+
+## Fixing a bug or improving a feature
+
+Generally it's fine to just work on these kinds of things and put a pull-request out for it. If there
+is an issue accompanying it make sure to link it in the pull request description so it can be closed
+afterwards or linked for context.
+
+If you want to find something to fix or work on keep a look out for the `C-bug` and `C-enhancement`
+labels.
+
+## Implementing a new feature
+
+It's advised to first open an issue for any kind of new feature so the team can tell upfront whether
+the feature is desirable or not before any implementation work happens. We want to minimize the
+possibility of someone putting a lot of work into a feature that is then going to waste as we deem
+it out of scope (be it due to generally not fitting in with Calam, or just not having the
+maintenance capacity). If there already is a feature issue open but it is not clear whether it is
+considered accepted feel free to just drop a comment and ask!