chore: establish community contribution process

[marythought]

Summary

• Replaces the bare DCO-only CONTRIBUTING.md with a full community contribution guide
• Adds Code of Conduct link (canonical CoC lives in opentdf/platform)
• Documents community feedback channels (bugs → issues, features/questions → platform Discussions)
• Adds contribution workflow, branch naming conventions, commit message format (Conventional Commits), and PR guidelines
• Retains full DCO section unchanged

Test plan

• Review rendered Markdown on GitHub
• Verify all links resolve correctly

Closes DSPX-2421

[gemini-code-assist]

Summary of Changes

Hello @marythought, I'm Gemini Code Assist¹! I'm currently reviewing this pull request and will post my feedback shortly. In the meantime, here's a summary to help you and other reviewers quickly get up to speed!

This pull request significantly enhances the CONTRIBUTING.md file to establish a robust and clear community contribution process for the otdfctl repository. It aims to guide new and existing contributors through the entire lifecycle of engagement, from understanding the code of conduct and providing feedback to submitting well-structured code changes. The update standardizes development practices, making it easier for individuals to contribute effectively and for maintainers to review submissions.

Highlights

• Comprehensive Contribution Guide: The existing DCO-only CONTRIBUTING.md has been replaced with a detailed community contribution guide, covering various aspects of engagement and code contribution.
• Code of Conduct Integration: A link to the OpenTDF Code of Conduct has been added, ensuring contributors are aware of expected behavior.
• Community Feedback Channels: Clear guidance is now provided on where to report bugs, request features, ask questions, and suggest documentation improvements, directing users to appropriate GitHub features like Issues and Discussions.
• Standardized Contribution Workflow: New sections detail the contribution workflow, including steps for checking existing issues, aligning on approach, forking, branching, signing off commits, and opening pull requests.
• Coding Standards and Guidelines: Specific guidelines for branch naming (e.g., feat/, fix/), commit message format (Conventional Commits), and pull request best practices have been introduced to maintain consistency.
• Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO): The full DCO section has been retained and integrated into the new comprehensive guide, ensuring legal integrity of contributions.

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Changelog

• CONTRIBUTING.md
  • Replaced the minimal DCO-only content with a comprehensive guide.
  • Added sections for Code of Conduct, Community Feedback, How to Contribute, Development Setup, Branch Naming, Commit Messages, and Pull Request Guidelines.
  • Integrated the existing Developer Certificate of Origin (DCO) content into the new structure.

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[gemini-code-assist]

Code Review

This pull request significantly improves the CONTRIBUTING.md file by transforming it from a DCO-only document into a comprehensive guide for community contributions. The new content covers essential aspects such as the Code of Conduct, community feedback channels, a detailed contribution workflow, branch naming conventions, Conventional Commits format for commit messages, and clear pull request guidelines. The existing DCO section has been retained and slightly refined for better readability. This update is a valuable addition that will greatly assist new and existing contributors in understanding and adhering to the project's contribution standards.

[github-actions]

X-Test Results

bats-test-results
test-cases-mapping-report
✅ js-v0.9.0
✅ java-v0.9.0
✅ js-main
✅ java-main
✅ go-v0.9.0
✅ go-main

[github-actions]

X-Test Results

bats-test-results
test-cases-mapping-report
✅ js-v0.9.0
✅ js-main
✅ java-v0.9.0
✅ java-main
✅ go-v0.9.0
✅ go-main