diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index f6c4cf01..72c44cad 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -37,6 +37,13 @@ accept your pull requests.
 1.  Title your pull request following [Conventional Commits](https://www.conventionalcommits.org/) styling.
 1.  Submit a pull request.
 
+### Before you begin
+
+1.  [Select or create a Cloud Platform project][projects]. 
+1.  [Set up authentication with a service account][auth] so you can access the
+    API from your local workstation.
+
+
 ## Running the tests
 
 1.  [Prepare your environment for Node.js setup][setup].
@@ -51,11 +58,9 @@ accept your pull requests.
         npm test
 
         # Run sample integration tests.
-        gcloud auth application-default login
         npm run samples-test
 
         # Run all system tests.
-        gcloud auth application-default login
         npm run system-test
 
 1.  Lint (and maybe fix) any changes:
@@ -63,3 +68,7 @@ accept your pull requests.
         npm run fix
 
 [setup]: https://cloud.google.com/nodejs/docs/setup
+[projects]: https://console.cloud.google.com/project
+[billing]: https://support.google.com/cloud/answer/6293499#enable-billing
+
+[auth]: https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication/getting-started
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 68e4dde1..da54ef90 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -445,8 +445,7 @@ A complete example can be found in [`samples/verifyIdToken-iap.js`](https://gith
 
 ## Samples
 
-Samples are in the [`samples/`](https://github.com/googleapis/google-auth-library-nodejs/tree/master/samples) directory. The samples' `README.md`
-has instructions for running the samples.
+Samples are in the [`samples/`](https://github.com/googleapis/google-auth-library-nodejs/tree/master/samples) directory. Each sample's `README.md` has instructions for running its sample.
 
 | Sample                      | Source Code                       | Try it |
 | --------------------------- | --------------------------------- | ------ |
diff --git a/synth.metadata b/synth.metadata
index 61327138..14382daa 100644
--- a/synth.metadata
+++ b/synth.metadata
@@ -4,14 +4,14 @@
       "git": {
         "name": ".",
         "remote": "https://github.com/googleapis/google-auth-library-nodejs.git",
-        "sha": "a5682b825b2716f983669c919ca8fef9ebbc3004"
+        "sha": "67b0cc3077860a1583bcf18ce50aeff58bbb5496"
       }
     },
     {
       "git": {
         "name": "synthtool",
         "remote": "https://github.com/googleapis/synthtool.git",
-        "sha": "15013eff642a7e7e855aed5a29e6e83c39beba2a"
+        "sha": "363fe305e9ce34a6cd53951c6ee5f997094b54ee"
       }
     }
   ]