diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
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+# Contributing
+
+This repository holds the Aave plugin manifests and the skills that ship with them. The MCP server
+itself lives in [aave/mcp](https://github.com/aave/mcp), and the skills here are also published by
+that server, so a change made here reaches both.
+
+## Proposing a skill
+
+A skill is a procedure for one flow: which tools to call, in what order, and what a finished answer
+has to contain. It earns its place by changing what an agent actually does, so a proposal is judged
+on that rather than on how it reads.
+
+Include in the pull request:
+
+- **The prompt**, phrased the way a user would type it.
+- **What the agent did without the skill**, as the sequence of MCP tools it called.
+- **What it did with the skill**, the same way.
+- **Why the difference matters**, in a sentence. A missing read, a step taken in the wrong order, or
+  a number reported without the context that qualifies it.
+
+Run the comparison so the skill is the only difference between the two arms:
+
+- Both arms against `mcp.aave.com`, with the same model, and more than one attempt each. A single
+  run tells you very little about a change in behaviour.
+- Repeat the pair on a small model. The plugin loads into every client whatever model sits behind
+  it, and a flow a large model handles bare is often the one a small model gets wrong, so the
+  small-model run decides as much as the other.
+- Give neither arm anything beyond the server: no shell, no file tools, no other skills. A skill
+  that only wins because the bare agent had `curl` has not won.
+- Use a wallet that holds a live position, stated in the prompt. Against an empty wallet, "no
+  position" is the right answer to everything, so every skill passes trivially, and an agent given
+  no address at all will sometimes invent one.
+
+Two things get proposals turned down more than anything else. A skill that restates what the tool
+descriptions already say costs context on every turn and buys nothing, because every skill's
+description is loaded whether or not it fires. And a skill written for a flow the tools already
+handle correctly is a fix for a problem that is not there. The test for both is the transcript: the
+same tool sequence and the same answer in both arms drops the skill, and no cost figure argues it
+back in. A skill that fired and still changed nothing fails the same way, so what gets judged is
+the sequence, never whether the skill loaded.
+
+## Skill format
+
+Skills follow the [Agent Skills specification](https://agentskills.io/specification). In this
+repository:
+
+- One directory per skill under `plugins/mcp/skills/`, holding a single `SKILL.md`.
+- The directory name is the skill's `name`, and the two have to match.
+- Frontmatter carries `name` and `description`, each a single line.
+- The `description` decides when the skill fires, so write it around what a user would ask, not
+  around what the skill contains. If the skill exists to precede one tool call, name that tool in
+  the description too: one that only names the topic often never fires.
+- Name only tools the server actually serves. `tools/list` on `mcp.aave.com` is the inventory, and a
+  skill naming a tool that does not exist is rejected by the server's own test suite.
+
+Keep the body short. It is read by a model mid-task, not by someone browsing.
+
+## Before opening a pull request
+
+```bash
+claude plugin validate .
+```
+
+## When the change belongs in the server instead
+
+If a lesson holds generally rather than for one flow, it usually belongs in a tool description in
+[aave/mcp](https://github.com/aave/mcp), where every client gets it and nothing is paid for it on
+turns where it does not apply. That is a change worth making, and worth proposing there instead.
+
+Whichever way it lands, file the failing bare-arm sequence as an issue on
+[aave/mcp](https://github.com/aave/mcp). A sequence the bare agent got wrong is a tool-description
+bug first, and evidence for a skill second.
+
+## A merged skill does not stay merged
+
+The server's descriptions keep absorbing the lessons skills carry. After a server release, the
+comparisons for the skills shipped here get re-run, and a skill whose two arms now match is
+deleted. The set should shrink over time, not grow.
+
+## Licence
+
+Contributions are accepted under the MIT licence, the same one this repository carries. See
+[LICENSE](LICENSE).
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index d0acb2f..61ac358 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -76,7 +76,8 @@ versioning, beginning with `1.0.0`.
 
 ## Contributing
 
-PRs welcome. Run `claude plugin validate .` first.
+Skill proposals and corrections are welcome. [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) covers what a
+proposal needs and the checks to run first.
 
 ## License