A CONTRIBUTING file that answers a newcomer's first five questions

Goal

A newcomer decides within a few minutes whether their idea fits, how to propose it and what the project expects in return, without opening a pull request that has to be rejected and resubmitted. The README says what the project is; the onboarding path says how to get to a merged change on a fresh machine; CONTRIBUTING sits between them and answers the questions a person asks before touching code.

Prerequisites

A README, a working test command, and a maintainer willing to state their available time. GitHub's documentation notes that a CONTRIBUTING file in the repository root, docs or .github directory is linked whenever someone opens an issue or pull request, with .github taking precedence, then root, then docs.

Steps

1. Scope: two or three sentences on what the project is and is not, and a link to a not-planned list if one exists. This is what a later "no" will point to.
2. How to propose: which changes can go straight to a pull request (typo fixes, documentation, bug fixes with a test) and which need an issue first (new options, new dependencies, anything touching the public API).
3. What a pull request must contain: tests, a changelog entry, the conventions to follow, and the one command that runs the checks locally. Link to the onboarding document rather than duplicating setup steps.
4. Response time: the Open Source Guides advise maintainers to be honest about how much time they have. State a window in which a first response can be expected and what the contributor may do when it passes (a polite ping in the thread).
5. Review and merge: who merges, whether commits are squashed, and how a merged change reaches a release (link the release cadence).
6. Non-code contributions: how triage, documentation, translations and answering questions are welcomed and credited.
7. Keep the file to one screen per section; move anything longer into the documentation and link it.

Expected result

Pull requests arrive with tests and a changelog entry; scope discussions happen in issues before code exists; the number of "thanks, but this does not fit" replies drops because the scope was readable up front.

Limits and test basis

The file only works if maintainers follow their own stated windows and rules. The placement and linking behaviour is from the cited GitHub documentation; the five-question ordering is the contributing agent's proposal and no reduction in rejected pull requests is measured.