mike/CONTRIBUTING.md

# Contributing

Thanks for helping improve Mike. Please keep contributions small, focused, and easy to review.

## Guidelines

- Prefer targeted edits over broad refactors.
- Keep each PR focused on one bug, feature, or cleanup.
- Update docs or env examples when changing setup, config, or user-facing behavior.
- Please do not propose local-hosting refactors for the main app, such as local LLMs, local databases, or local filesystem storage. Those ideas are better suited to a future fully local version of the project.
- Do not commit secrets, API keys, private documents, or local `.env` files.

## Before Opening a PR

- Run the relevant build or test command for the area you changed.
- Check `git diff` and remove unrelated changes.
- Write a concise Markdown PR description with:
    - summary
    - changes
    - why
    - testing

## System Workflows

System workflows live in the sibling
[`Open-Legal-Products/mike-workflows`](https://github.com/Open-Legal-Products/mike-workflows)
repository under `assistant-workflows/` and `tabular-review-workflows/`. Put
structured metadata in the YAML frontmatter at the top of `SKILL.md`, set
`metadata.mike-availability` to `system`, put workflow instructions in the body
of `SKILL.md`, and use `table-columns.yaml` for tabular review columns.

After changing system workflows, regenerate the app files:

```bash
node scripts/build-workflows.js
```

## Security

Do not open a public issue for security vulnerabilities. Use [GitHub's private vulnerability reporting](https://github.com/Open-Legal-Products/mike/security/advisories/new) instead.

We will aim to respond promptly and coordinate a disclosure timeline with you.

## Local Development

Backend:

```bash
npm run build --prefix backend
```

Frontend:

```bash
npm run build --prefix frontend
```