Add CONTRIBUTING.md

.github/workflows/tests.yaml

@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ on:
       - dev
     paths-ignore:
       - 'README.md'
+      - 'CONTRIBUTING.md'
       - 'LICENSE'
       - '.gitignore'
       - 'scripts/**'

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+# Contributing to synapsecns/sdk
+
+We welcome issues and pull requests to this repo! If you have an idea which you think we should implement,
+just open up a new issue and make sure to tag it as a feature request. 
+
+If you're opening a PR, please note that PRs against the [`master`](https://github.com/synapsecns/sdk/tree/master) branch 
+will likely be ignored; instead, make your changes in a branch based off of [`dev`](https://github.com/synapsecns/sdk/tree/dev). 
+This stipulation is due to how fast changes occur in the `dev` branch, and our PR workflow for merging `dev` into `master` 
+by way of squash commits; that is to say, opening a PR against `master` will likely cause several merge conflicts 
+when trying to merge it into `dev`. So please, just save all of us the pain of working out merge conflicts
+and make your changes against `dev`.
+
+## PR formatting/etiquette
+
+When opening a pull request, please use a short but descriptive title. You can be as verbose and descriptive as necessary
+in the PR description, but try not to overthink it: if one sentence makes just as much sense as five, go with one.
+
+Please also make sure that, when your changes are ready for review, to rebase your branch against `dev` to ensure that 
+your fork is up to date with any changes made to `dev` in the meantime. 
+
+## Tests
+
+PRs from external contributors will not be considered for merging unless all of the following criteria are met: 
+
+1. All existing tests pass
+2. Test coverage of existing code is not decreased
+3. New code -- especially significantly complex code -- has tests written for it, preferably a lot of them (both actual tests as well as test cases)
+   1. Minimum required test coverage percentage for new code is 95%
+
+If you need or want assistance from us in writing or improving tests, just let us know! We genuinely enjoy helping out contributors when we can. 
+
+## Development environment setup
+
+1. Install [nvm](https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm) (if not already installed on your system)
+2. Use the correct NodeJS version: `nvm use`
+    - If yarn is not already installed for the given NPM version: `npm install -g yarn`
+3. Install dependencies: `yarn`
+4. Checkout a new branch, and start developing! (`git checkout -b [insert branch name here]`)
+
+### Tests
+
+`yarn test`
+
+### Build
+
+`yarn build`
+
+Compiled and built files are output to `dist/`.

README.md

@@ -13,26 +13,3 @@ Typescript SDK for the Synapse Protocol.
 
 See the [Docs](https://github.com/synapsecns/sdk/wiki).
 
-## Development instructions
-
-### Notes
-
-Please only file PRs against the `dev` branch. PRs against master, unless incredibly urgent (ie. they fix major production bugs), will be ignored
-due to the frequency at which `dev` is updated and the insinuant merge conflicts which then occur. 
-
-### Setup (for development)
-
-1. Install [nvm](https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm) (if not already installed on your system)
-2. `nvm use`
-   - If yarn is not already installed for the given NPM version: `npm install -g yarn` 
-3. `yarn setup`
-
-### Tests
-
-`yarn test`
-
-### Build
-
-`yarn build`
-
-Compiled and built files are output to `dist/`.