Technical Documentation

Much software is written by people who don't work in the same office or timezone. Over the years, teams and open source projects have developed some conventions so that anyone starting to work on a project can orient themselves. Look for these files in any new project to get an idea of how to get started.

README.md - At a minimum, most projects will have one of these files in the root. Typically, it explains the project's purpose, installation steps and all configuration details to start and run the project.

CONTRIBUTING.md - This file describes how to contribute to a project. It should explains how issues are tracked, how to submit code (likely pull requests) and the process of review and approval based on code quality details (like: test coverage or linting). example CONTRIBUTING.md file

INSTALL.md - Some projects will have a separate file for installation instuctions. The separate file will usually indicate a more involved build process or signal that the project has many more users than authors.

At a minimum, the project should have a README.md file that explains how to install, build and run the project. We would prefer a README/CONTRIBUTING/INSTALL set as outlined here.