adding documemtation for contributing and documentation

docs/contributing.md

@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+# Contributing to Vortex on Github
+
+## Github Details
+- There are two main repos, `vortex` (public, this one) and `vortex-dev` (private)
+- todo: Most current development is on `vortex`
+- If you have a legacy version of `vortex`, you can use the releases branch or tags to access the repo at that point in time
+
+## Contribution Process
+- You should create a new branch from develop that is clearly named with the feature that you want to add
+- Avoid pushing directly to the `master` branch instead you will need to make a Pull Request (PR)
+- There should be protections in place that prevent pushing directly to the main branch, but don't rely on it
+- When you make a PR it will be tested against the continuous integration (ci) pipeline (see `continuous_integration.md`)
+- It is not sufficient to just write some tests, they need to be incorporated into the ci pipeline to make sure they are run
+- During a PR, you might receive feedback regarding your changes and you might need to make further commits to your branch
+
+
+## Creating  and Adding Tests
+see `testing.md`