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CONTRIBUTING.md

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+## 🎉 Welcome!
+
+We're so glad you're thinking about contributing to a Planning Labs open source project! If you're unsure about anything, just ask — or submit the issue or pull request anyway. The worst that can happen is you'll be politely asked to change something. We love all friendly contributions.
+
+We encourage you to read this project's CONTRIBUTING policy (you are here), its [LICENSE](LICENSE.md), and its [README](README.md).
+
+If you have any questions or want to read more, check out the [NYC Planning Labs Open Source Policy GitHub repository](https://github.com/NYCPlanning/labs-open-source-policy), or just [shoot us an email](mailto:labs_dl@planning.nyc.gov).
+
+## 🛠 Create a branch
+
+This repository has two evergreen branches: `master` and `develop`
+ (avoid directly committing changes to these two branches).
+
+| Branch | Notes |
+| ------ | ----- |
+| `master` | Master is always deployable and only accepts merges from `develop`. |
+| `develop` | Accepts merges from feature and issue branches. |
+| Feature/Issues | Always branch off `HEAD` of `develop`. Prefix feature branches with your name (e.g. `user-feature_name`). Prefix issue branches with the issue number (e.g. `123-issue_name`). |
+| Hotfixes | In rare cases, hotfix branches must be created to quickly update the project. Always branch off `master` and make sure those changes make it back into develop. |
+
+## 🤓 Be cool
+
+We want to ensure a welcoming environment for all of our projects. Planning Labs follows the [18F Code of Conduct](https://github.com/18F/code-of-conduct/blob/master/code-of-conduct.md) and all contributors should do the same.
+
+## 🤝 Public domain
+
+This project is in the public domain within the United States, and
+copyright and related rights in the work worldwide are waived through
+the [CC0 1.0 Universal public domain dedication](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).
+
+All contributions to this project will be released under the CC0
+dedication. By submitting a pull request, you are agreeing to comply
+with this waiver of copyright interest.