new contributing.md

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -0,0 +1,86 @@
+# Contributing Guidelines
+
+Welcome to the Snowflake repository! Please follow these guidelines to ensure a smooth development workflow and maintain the quality of our shared codebase.
+
+## Getting Started
+
+To start contributing, follow these steps to set up your local repository:
+
+### 1. Clone the Repository:
+
+```bash
+git clone https://github.com/Sage-Bionetworks/snowflake
+```
+
+### 2. Fetch the Latest `dev` Branch
+
+After cloning, navigate to the repository directory:
+
+```bash
+cd snowflake
+```
+
+Then, fetch the latest updates from the `dev` branch to ensure you’re working with the latest codebase:
+
+```bash
+git fetch origin dev
+```
+
+### 3. Create a New Branch Off `dev`
+
+Create and checkout your feature branch from the latest `dev` branch. Name it based on your feature or fix, and JIRA ticket number (if applicable). For example:
+
+```bash
+git checkout -b snow-123-new-feature origin/dev
+```
+
+Your branch will now be tracking `origin/dev` which you can merge with or rebase onto should a merge conflict occur. For more guidance
+on how to resolve merge conflicts, [see here](https://docs.github.com/en/pull-requests/collaborating-with-pull-requests/addressing-merge-conflicts/about-merge-conflicts#resolving-merge-conflicts).
+
+### 4. Push to The Remote Branch
+
+Once you've made your changes and committed them locally, push your branch to the remote repository:
+
+```
+git push origin snow-123-new-feature
+```
+
+### 5. Create a Draft Pull Request
+
+In order to initiate automated testing you will need to work on a draft pull request (PR) on GitHub. After pushing your commits to
+the remote branch in Step 4, use the GitHub UI to initate a PR and convert it to draft mode.
+
+## Running CI Jobs for Database Testing
+
+This repository includes automated CI jobs to validate changes against a cloned database. If you want to trigger these jobs to test your changes in an isolated database environment, please follow the steps below:
+
+### 1. Add the Label
+
+Add the label `create_clone_and_run_schemachange` to your PR to trigger the CI workflow. This job does two things:
+
+* Creates a zero-copy clone of the database and run your proposed schema changes against it.
+* Tests your schema changes on a cloned version of the development database, verifying that your updates work correctly without
+affecting the real development database. After the PR is merged, the clone is automatically dropped to free up resources.
+
+> [!IMPORTANT]
+> Your cloned database is a clone of the development database as it exists at the time of cloning. Please be mindful that **there may be
+> other developers working on their own version of the development database, whose changes may not be reflected in your clone**. Keep an
+> eye out for other PRs with the `create_clone_and_run_schemachange` label, and ensure that you are not performing schema changes on the
+> same tables to avoid conflicts.
+
+> [!TIP]
+> Your database will be named after your feature branch so it's easy to find on Snowsight. For example, if your feature branch is called
+> `snow-123-new-feature`, your database might be called `SYNAPSE_DATA_WAREHOUSE_DEV_SNOW_123_NEW_FEATURE`.
+
+### 2. Perform Inspection using Snowsight
+
+You can go on Snowsight to perform manual inspection of your database. We recommend using a SQL worksheet to query for expected behavior
+and ensure there is no row duplication in the new tables.
+
+> [!IMPORTANT]
+> An initial clone of the development database will not incur new resource costs, **HOWEVER**, when a clone deviates from the original
+> (e.g. new schema changes are applied for testing), the cloned database will begin to incur costs the longer it exists in our warehouse.
+> **Please be mindful of the amount of time your PR stays open**, as cloned databases do not get dropped until a PR is merged. If your 
+> PR is open for >1 week, consider manually dropping your cloned database on Snowflake to avoid unnecessary cost.
+
+Following these guidelines helps maintain a clean, efficient, and well-tested codebase. Thank you for contributing!

README.md

@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ pip install "snowflake-connector-python[pandas]" "synapseclient[pandas]" python-
 
 ## Contributing
 
-WIP
+For contribution guidelines, please see the `CONTRIBUTING.md` file in this repository.
 
 ## Visualizing with Streamlit