docs: add CONTRIBUTING.md

.gitignore

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 main.js
 styles.css
 packages/*/dist/
+data.json

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -0,0 +1,79 @@
+# Contributing
+
+Bug reports and feature requests go in issues. Pull requests are welcome.
+For anything larger than a fix, open an issue first so the approach can be agreed on before the work is done.
+
+The repo is a pnpm workspace on Node 24. `pnpm dev` builds into a test vault as set by `VAULT_PATH`, or into the root folder if `VAULT_PATH` is unset.
+
+## Prerequisites
+
+- Obsidian >= 1.13
+- Node >=24 (Volta-pinned to 24.15.0)
+- pnpm >=11 (Volta-pinned to 11.5.3)
+
+## Setup
+
+### Setup - In-vault (recommended for hot reload)
+
+Leave `VAULT_PATH` unset, but clone directly into `<TEST_VAULT_PATH>/.obsidian/plugins/project-manager`.
+Builds land in the repo root, which is the plugin dir.
+
+```sh
+cd <VAULT_PATH>/.obsidian/plugins
+git clone https://github.com/dotpm/obsidian-pm && cd obsidian-pm
+
+pnpm install
+
+pnpm dev  # watch-builds main.js + styles.css into the vault
+```
+
+#### Hot reload
+
+Install and enable the [hot-reload](https://github.com/pjeby/hot-reload) community plugin in the test vault.
+This plugin this plugin automatically watches for changes to the `main.js` or `styles.css` of any plugin in the test vault whose directory includes a `.git` subdirectory or a file called `.hotreload`.
+
+Every tsdown rebuild of `main.js` via `pnpm dev` will reload `obsidian-pm`. No restart needed!
+
+On mobile or in vaults where hot-reload can't run: use `Reload app without saving` (Cmd/Ctrl+R) via the Obsidian command palette.
+
+### Setup - Out-of-vault (recommended)
+
+Clone the repo in a directory outside of the test vault. Builds deploy into a test vault defined by `VAULT_PATH`.
+
+```sh
+git clone https://github.com/dotpm/obsidian-pm && cd obsidian-pm
+
+pnpm install
+
+export VAULT_PATH=/path/to/test-vault   # add to your shell profile
+
+pnpm dev                                # watch-builds main.js + styles.css into the vault
+```
+
+Ensure `VAULT_PATH` is set appropriately during development, and that `manifest.json` is copied into the test vault.
+
+## CI (Tests & Checks)
+
+`pnpm check`, `pnpm check:submission` and `pnpm test` are what CI runs.
+
+The scripts from `package.json` to be aware of are as follows:
+
+- `dev`: `run-p dev:js dev:css`,
+- `dev:js`: `pnpm build:viewer && tsdown --watch`,
+- `dev:css`: `node scripts/build-styles.mjs --watch`,
+- `build`: `run-p build:js build:css`,
+- `build:js`: `pnpm build:viewer && PRODUCTION=1 tsdown`,
+- `build:css`: `PRODUCTION=1 node scripts/build-styles.mjs`,
+- `check`: `run-p check:**`,
+- `check:code`: `oxlint ./src ./packages ./test`,
+- `check:format`: `oxfmt --check ./src ./packages ./test`,
+- `check:submission`: `eslint --max-warnings 0 src/ packages/`,
+- `check:types`: `tsc -noEmit -skipLibCheck`,
+- `fix`: `run-p fix:**`,
+- `fix:code`: `oxlint --fix ./src ./packages ./test`,
+- `fix:format`: `oxfmt ./src ./packages ./test`,
+- `test`: `vitest run`,
+- `test:watch`: `vitest`,
+- `test:coverage`: `vitest run --coverage`,
+- `build:viewer`: `node scripts/build-viewer.mjs`,
+- `build:packages`: `pnpm --filter @dotpm/core --filter @dotpm/api --filter @dotpm/viewer build`

README.md

@@ -155,6 +155,8 @@ Everything a client changes goes through the same code the views use and shows u
 
 ## Contributing
 
+For more information see [CONTRIBUTING.md](https://github.com/dotpm/obsidian-pm/blobs/main/CONTRIBUTING.md).
+
 Bug reports and feature requests go in [issues](https://github.com/dotpm/obsidian-pm/issues). Pull requests are welcome. For anything larger than a fix, open an issue first so the approach can be agreed on before the work is done.
 
 The repo is a pnpm workspace on Node 24. `pnpm dev` builds into the vault named by `VAULT_PATH`, and `pnpm check`, `pnpm check:submission` and `pnpm test` are what CI runs.