CONTRIBUTING.md closes the "how do I add anything" gap: the protocol PRD
defines the CONTRACT (what's allowed, what's verified), but until now
recipes were implicit — readers had to reverse-engineer patterns from
existing routes/vault_status.py + static/app.js + the STT migration.
Five recipes, one decision flowchart:
A Add a new /api/* endpoint
B Add a new UI element (CSS/JS/asset)
C Extend the loader API (add an 8th method) — STT migration is the example
D Add a config value
E Forced-internal escape hatch (use sparingly, discipline at 5 rows)
Each recipe: numbered steps, file paths, commit message template, test
requirement. Plus a PR checklist + quick-reference index.
README.md gets a top-of-page pointer so a new contributor lands on the
recipes within one click.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
