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+# Contributing
+
+Thanks for looking. This repository holds runnable demos for cMCP, TRACE and the
+agent governance tooling. Everything here is meant to be executed rather than only read,
+which shapes what a good contribution looks like.
+
+## Getting the code and running it
+
+```
+git clone https://github.com/agentrust-io/demos
+cd demos
+pip install -r requirements.txt
+python demo-01-cmcp-in-action/run.py
+```
+
+The README lists every demo and roughly how long each takes. CI runs all of them
+on every pull request, so if a demo does not run from a clean checkout, that is a
+bug worth reporting.
+
+## Reporting a problem or suggesting a demo
+
+Open an issue: <https://github.com/agentrust-io/demos/issues>. For a broken demo,
+include the command you ran and what it printed. The output is the evidence.
+
+For a security issue, do not open an issue. See [SECURITY.md](SECURITY.md).
+
+## What an acceptable contribution looks like
+
+**A demo must assert its own outcome.** This is the one rule worth stating
+plainly. A demo prints claims about what was enforced, denied, or verified, and a
+reader believes them. So the script must check the thing it claims and fail
+loudly when the check fails. Printing a heading and then printing a value that
+contradicts it is the specific failure mode we have already shipped once: demo-06
+printed `gate released key: False` under a heading saying the opposite. A demo
+that can print a success message while the underlying check failed is not
+finished.
+
+Concretely, for a change to be merged:
+
+- The demo runs end to end from a clean checkout with the documented command.
+- It exits non-zero when its own assertion fails, so CI catches it.
+- Its output states what actually happened, including when that is a denial.
+- Any new demo is added to the README with what it shows and how long it takes,
+  and to `.github/workflows/ci.yml` so it is run on every pull request.
+- Tests under `tests/` cover any shared helper you add.
+
+## Style
+
+- Match the surrounding code. There is no separate style guide to learn.
+- Commit messages follow [Conventional Commits](https://www.conventionalcommits.org),
+  e.g. `fix(demo-06): assert the gate result the heading claims`.
+- Keep pull requests small and single-purpose.
+
+## Fixtures and keys
+
+Everything committed here is synthetic. Sample keys and fixtures exist to be
+published and are not secrets. Never add a real credential, endpoint or customer
+identifier, even in a comment.
+
+## Licence
+
+By contributing you agree that your contribution is licensed under the MIT
+Licence in [LICENSE](LICENSE), the same terms as the rest of the repository.