Merge pull request #21 from Qortal/update/readme-contribution

Update/readme contribution

README.md

@@ -18,4 +18,3 @@ Leveraging a redundant set of publicly accessible nodes provided by crowetic, Qo
 
 Many additional details and a fully featured wiki will be created over time. Reach out on the chat on https://qortal.dev or in any of the community locations for Qortal, if you have any issues. Thank you!
 
-

docs/contribution.md

@@ -0,0 +1,84 @@
+
+# 🤝 Contributing Guide
+
+Thank you for your interest in contributing! We follow a structured Git workflow to keep the project clean, stable, and production-ready at all times.
+
+---
+
+## 📦 Branch Overview
+
+| Branch           | Purpose                                                  |
+|------------------|----------------------------------------------------------|
+| `master`         | Stable, production-ready code. All releases are tagged from here. |
+| `develop`        | Active development branch. All new features go here first. |
+| `release/x.y.z`  | Pre-release branch for staging, QA, and final polish.     |
+
+---
+
+## 🌿 Creating a Feature or Fix
+
+1. **Start from `develop`:**
+
+   ```bash
+   git checkout develop
+   git checkout -b feature/your-feature-name
+   ```
+
+2. **Make your changes and commit them.**
+
+3. **Push your branch:**
+
+   ```bash
+   git push origin feature/your-feature-name
+   ```
+
+4. **Open a Pull Request into `develop`.**
+
+---
+
+## 🚀 Releasing Code (Maintainers Only)
+
+A new `release/x.y.z` branch must be created for **every release**.
+
+1. **Create a `release/` branch from `master`:**
+
+   ```bash
+   git checkout master
+   git checkout -b release/1.2.0
+   ```
+
+2. **Merge in `develop` or selected branches if `develop` is not ready:**
+
+   ```bash
+   git merge develop
+   # or
+   git merge feature/finished-feature
+   git merge feature/another-complete-feature
+   ```
+
+3. **Polish, test, and fix issues as needed.**
+
+4. **Merge back into `develop`:**
+
+   ```bash
+   git checkout develop
+   git merge release/1.2.0
+   git push origin develop
+   ```
+
+5. **Finalize the release:**
+
+   ```bash
+   git checkout master
+   git merge release/1.2.0
+   git tag v1.2.0
+   git push origin master --tags
+   ```
+
+6. **Delete the release branch:**
+
+   ```bash
+   git branch -d release/1.2.0
+   git push origin --delete release/1.2.0
+   ```
+