Describe the contributing process

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+# Contributing
+
+## Preparing changes
+
+
+Larger changes, as well as changes breaking backwards compatibility
+require a design document describing the planned change. It should
+carefully discuss the objective of the planned feature, possible
+alternatives, as well as the transition plan. This document has to
+be agreed upon and committed to the repository first.
+
+For all changes, remember to also update the documentation and
+add appropriate test coverage. For code to be accepted, all tests
+must pass; the two global test suites are `["test", "ALL"]` and
+`["test", "bootstrap-test"]` where the latter needs an increased
+action time out. Code is formatted with `clang-format` and linted
+with `clang-tidy`; the corresponding configuration files can be
+found in the top-level directory of this repository.
+
+Changes should be organized as a patch series, i.e., as a sequence of
+small changes that are easy to review, but nevertheless self-contained
+in the sense that after each such change, the code builds and the
+tests pass; in particular, tests should be rebased to come after
+the implementation in the series to avoid spurious errors when
+doing `git bisect`. And the end of a patch series, there should be
+no "loose ends" like library functions added, but never used.
+
+## Submitting patches
+
+Patches can be send for review by creating a feature branch in a
+clone of the repository and creating a merge request on one of the
+`git`-hosting sites hosting this repository.
+
+Alternatively, patches can also be sent via email using `git
+format-patch`, `git send-email`. Please use the `--cover-letter`
+option and add the description of the patch series in the cover
+letter. When sending a revised version, e.g., because of review
+comments, please make the new cover letter `In-Reply-To:` the old
+over letter
+
+## Review
+
+Each commit has to be reviewed by a core member of the project (a
+person with write access to the repository) that is not the author
+of the respective commit. The core member who did the review will
+also push the commits. Patch series go in as a whole or not at all.
+Changes are added fast-forward of the current `master` without a
+merge commit, rebasing the patches, if necessary.