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+# Contributing to the Machine Vision Toolbox for Python
+
+Thanks for your interest in contributing! We welcome bug reports, fixes, new features, and documentation improvements.
+
+## Reporting issues
+
+Please use the issue template and include:
+
+- Your operating system, Python version, and machinevisiontoolbox version
+- A short, self-contained code example that reproduces the problem
+
+## Looking for somewhere to start?
+
+Issues labelled [`good first issue`](https://github.com/petercorke/machinevision-toolbox-python/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3A%22good+first+issue%22) or [`help wanted`](https://github.com/petercorke/machinevision-toolbox-python/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3A%22help+wanted%22) are a good place to start.
+
+## Contributing code
+
+- Keep pull requests scoped to a single feature or fix. If you have several unrelated changes, open separate PRs so each can be reviewed and merged independently.
+- For API changes, propose the change in [Discussions](https://github.com/petercorke/machinevision-toolbox-python/discussions) before opening a PR.
+- PR titles follow [Conventional Commits](https://www.conventionalcommits.org/) (`type: description`) — checked automatically on the PR.
+- Code is linted and import-sorted with [ruff](https://docs.astral.sh/ruff/) and formatted with [black](https://pypi.org/project/black/); configuration is in `pyproject.toml` under `[tool.ruff]` and `[tool.black]`. Type checking is done with [pyright](https://microsoft.github.io/pyright/) (`[tool.pyright]`).
+- New or changed code should be type-hinted using modern syntax (`X | Y`, `X | None`, `list[X]`, `dict[K, V]` — not `Union`, `Optional`, `List`, `Dict`).
+- Docstrings use reST style (`:param:`, `:returns:`). Type hints in the function signature already cover types, so `:type:`/`:rtype:` are rarely needed.
+- Any code change should be covered by tests and must not break existing ones. Tests live in `tests/`. Install the dev dependencies with `pip install -e '.[dev]'` (add `,docs` too if you're touching documentation), then run:
+
+  ```
+  python -m pytest --timeout=50 --timeout-method=thread
+  ```
+
+- Target branch is `main`.
+
+## License
+
+By contributing, you agree that your contributions will be licensed under this project's [MIT License](LICENSE).