docs: add CONTRIBUTING.md (GH #555)

[kotfu]

Closes #555.

@chrissnell -- this is the CONTRIBUTING.md draft you asked for in #555. Could you give it a review? There are a handful of policy calls in it that are yours to make, listed below. I'd rather settle them here than guess.

What's in it

• CONTRIBUTING.md (new). Covers:

  • ways to contribute, and whether a change is right for the project;
  • bug reports and feature requests, and how we use issue labels;
  • dev environment setup and the Makefile targets;
  • running from source, with the web UI and modem dev loops;
  • tests and what CI runs;
  • which docs a change is expected to update (wiki, handbook, release notes);
  • the PR process: branches, workflow, title style, description, checklist, review;
  • using AI coding agents, copyright and licensing, security reports, code of conduct, and getting help.

  It's written so agents can follow it too, per your comment on Draft a CONTRIBUTING.md for review and adoption #555, and it points at docs/wiki/ for architecture.

• CLAUDE.md: a short section pointing agents at CONTRIBUTING.md.

• docs/wiki/README.md: an index row for CONTRIBUTING.md.

• docs/handbook/installation.html: fixes the build-from-source requirements. Go 1.26+ (it said 1.22+; go.mod is go 1.26.2), and adds protoc, which was missing even though the modem's build script needs it.

Decisions needed before adoption

The draft marks each of these with a "Draft note for reviewers" blockquote. Those get removed once they're decided.

1. Copyright stance on AI-assisted contributions. Do we require disclosure, a DCO Signed-off-by, or a Co-authored-by trailer (required, optional, or discouraged)? Or is "you are the author and responsible for it" enough?
2. Security-report contact. The draft uses graywolf@nw5w.com, the contact on the handbook's privacy page. Is that the address you want?
3. Code of conduct. Keep the short inline version, or adopt Contributor Covenant 2.1 as a separate CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md? Either way, please confirm the reporting contact.
4. Workflow labels. The draft proposes support, needs-info, needs-discussion, needs-second-review and awaiting-author, plus the triage flow that uses them. Two sub-questions:
   • Plain names, matching the existing in-progress, backlog and blocked-pending-other-work? Or a status: prefix, which would also mean renaming those three?
   • Narrow question to design or behavior questions, and move support requests to support and missing-detail reports to needs-info?
5. Merge style (new since the draft was written). The draft says maintainers "usually squash-merge", so PR titles become commit subjects. Recent merges (Fix IS-received packets logged with DirRX instead of DirIS #540, bugfix: Mic-E - stop rejecting valid Mic-E longitude/speed bytes #568, igate: add regional APRS-IS server choices (GH #593) #594) have used merge commits, though. Which one do we want to document?

Follow-ups, not in this PR

These are separate PRs or repo settings, and none of them block adoption. They're listed in detail in this comment on #555.

• a Contributing link in the README;
• PR and issue templates;
• turning on private vulnerability reporting and auto-delete of head branches;
• cleaning up old branches;
• creating the labels once item 4 is decided.

Testing

Docs only. The branch merges cleanly with current main.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[chrissnell]

I will need to look this weekend. In general I would say: - always use your personal GitHub account. - never use a work account - never ever allow commits from @claude etc or attribution to an AI agent anywhere. Not in the code, not in the README, not in the commit message of PR. Not with a dog, not on a log. Only humans. - use obra/superpowers skills when authoring and be sure to use requesting-code-review skill to review your code before PRing - all new functions require proper tests - new features should be cleanly documented in the handbook in plain, easy to understand English.

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