docs: add CLA and CONTRIBUTING guidelines (#26)

.gitignore

@@ -17,7 +17,4 @@ local.properties
 *.jks
 google-services.json
 .kotlin/
-.idea/
+.idea/
-CLA.md
-CONTRIBUTING.md
-cla.yml

CLA.md

@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+# Episteme Contributor License Agreement ("Agreement")
+
+### Summary
+
+Before the legal text below, here is the summary of what you are agreeing to:
+
+- **You keep your copyright.** You still own the code you wrote.
+- **You grant us a license.** You give Aryan Raj (the lead maintainer of Episteme) permission to use, modify, and distribute your code.
+- **Dual-Licensing.** You explicitly give us permission to use your contribution in both the open-source (AGPL) version of Episteme and any closed-source/commercial versions (like the Play Store release).
+- **One-time signing.** You only need to sign this once. It covers all your future contributions.
+
+---
+
+### The Legal Agreement
+
+This Contributor License Agreement ("Agreement") is agreed to by the party signing below ("You"), and conveys certain license rights to Aryan Raj, acting as the maintainer of the Episteme Project ("Project Lead"), for Your contributions to the Episteme open source project.
+
+**1. Definitions.**
+
+"Contribution" shall mean any original work of authorship, including any modifications or additions to an existing work, that is intentionally submitted by You to the Project Lead for inclusion in, or documentation of, any of the products owned or managed by the Project Lead.
+
+**2. Grant of Copyright License.**
+
+Subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, You hereby grant to the Project Lead and to recipients of software distributed by the Project Lead a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable copyright license to reproduce, prepare derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, and distribute Your Contributions and such derivative works. This includes the right for the Project Lead to re-license and use Your Contributions in proprietary, commercial, or closed-source versions of the software.
+
+**3. Grant of Patent License.**
+
+Subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, You hereby grant to the Project Lead and to recipients of software distributed by the Project Lead a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable patent license to make, have made, use, offer to sell, sell, import, and otherwise transfer the Contributions.
+
+**4. Ownership.**
+
+Except for the licenses granted herein, You reserve all right, title, and interest in and to Your Contributions.
+
+**5. Representations.**
+
+You represent that You are legally entitled to grant the above licenses. If your employer(s) has rights to intellectual property that you create that includes your Contributions, you represent that you have received permission to make Contributions on behalf of that employer, that your employer has waived such rights for your Contributions to the Project Lead, or that your employer has executed a separate CLA with the Project Lead.
+
+**6. Ongoing Effect.**
+
+This Agreement applies to all Contributions You submit to the Project, both now and in the future. You only need to sign this Agreement once. By signing, you agree that all current and future Contributions to the Episteme project are covered under the terms of this Agreement, unless you explicitly revoke this Agreement by notifying the Project Lead in writing. Any Contributions made before such revocation will remain licensed under the terms of this Agreement.
+
+---
+
+**By signing via CLA Assistant when prompted on your Pull Request, you agree to these terms.**

CONTRIBUTING.md

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+# Contributing to Episteme
+
+Thank you for considering contributing to Episteme!
+
+## The Open-Core Model & Why We Use a CLA
+
+Episteme is built by an independent developer (Aryan Raj) using an **Open-Core** model. This means:
+
+1. The core application (this repository) is 100% open-source under the **AGPL** license.
+2. To sustain the project's development, there is also a proprietary, commercial **Episteme** version available on the Google Play Store.
+
+Because the AGPL is a strict "copyleft" license, any code you contribute here is implicitly AGPL. If I were to put your AGPL code into the Play Store version, the Play Store version would legally be forced to become fully open-source as well.
+
+To solve this, we require a **Contributor License Agreement (CLA)**.
+
+By signing the CLA, you are saying: *"I still own my code, but I give Aryan Raj permission to use it in both the open-source repo and the proprietary Play Store app."*
+
+You can read the full CLA [here](CLA.md).
+
+This allows the open-source version to thrive while keeping the project sustainable.
+
+## How to Submit a Pull Request
+
+1. Fork the repository and create your branch from `main`.
+2. Make your changes and commit them with clear, descriptive messages.
+3. Open a Pull Request!
+4. **Sign the CLA:** When you open your first PR, the [CLA Assistant](https://cla-assistant.io/) bot will automatically comment with a link. Simply click the link, sign in with GitHub, and click "I agree." **This is a one-time process** — once signed, it covers all your future contributions to Episteme.
+
+## Questions?
+
+If you have any questions about the CLA, contributing, or anything else, feel free to open an issue or reach out.
+
+Thank you for helping make Episteme better for everyone!