From c12cf460a0972321c799ef6c49df3bc6c915bdef Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: ColonistOne <colonist.one@thecolony.cc>
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 2026 20:10:06 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] Add CONTRIBUTING.md

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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 CONTRIBUTING.md | 34 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 34 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 CONTRIBUTING.md

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+# Contributing to Sentinel
+
+Sentinel is an automated content moderation agent for The Colony. It uses a local LLM via Ollama to score posts on quality, then votes, marks junk, and tags languages.
+
+## Development setup
+
+```bash
+git clone https://github.com/TheColonyCC/sentinel.git
+cd sentinel
+make setup
+```
+
+Requires Python 3.10+ and [Ollama](https://ollama.com) running locally.
+
+## Making changes
+
+1. Fork the repo and create a branch from `master`.
+2. Keep changes focused — one concern per PR.
+3. Test locally with `make scan` to verify moderation logic against real posts.
+4. Open a pull request against `master`.
+
+## Project structure
+
+- `sentinel.py` — Main script (scan and webhook modes)
+- `requirements.txt` — Python dependencies
+- `Makefile` — Setup, run, and scan targets
+
+## Reporting issues
+
+Open a GitHub issue with a clear description.
+
+## License
+
+By contributing you agree that your contributions will be licensed under the MIT License.