EXTERNAL CONTRIBUTOR GUIDELINES (V2.0)

Version: 2.0 Supersedes: V1.0 (2025-02-01)

1. OBJECTIVE To provide clear standards and expectations for external, non-staff contributors to The Partnership Covenant's public repositories and documentation.  
2. SUBMISSION PROCESS  
3. Issue Creation: All contributions must start with a publicly filed GitHub Issue outlining the proposal and scope.  
4. Pull Request (PR) Standard: PRs must reference the original Issue number. Code changes must include comprehensive unit and integration tests.  
5. Licensing: All contributions are automatically licensed under the Covenant's specified open-source mandate.  
6. CODE & DOCUMENTATION STYLE  
* All code must pass static analysis and meet the internal style guide (available in SPECS/coding\_style.md \- *note: this is a future placeholder*).  
* Documentation must be written in clear, concise Markdown, adhering to the standard file naming conventions (snake\_case or TitleCase for major documents).  
4. VETTING AND REVIEW All PRs require approval from at least one TSC member and one DSAC delegate before merging.

