Fixes issue #995

Author: Dawadi Kiran

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+Thank you for your interest in contributing to COSMOS! We welcome contributions and appreciate your help in making this project better. Please follow the guidelines below to ensure a smooth contribution process.
+
+## Pull Requests
+
+### Prerequisites
+
+- **GitHub CLI (`gh`)**: Make sure you have the GitHub CLI installed. If not, you can install it from [GitHub CLI installation page](https://cli.github.com/).
+
+### 1. **Create an Issue on the Repo**
+
+1. **Navigate to Your Repository**:
+    
+    ```bash
+    $ cd path/to/your/repository
+    ```
+    
+2. **Create an Issue**:
+Use the `gh issue create` command to create a new issue.
+    
+    ```bash
+    $ gh issue create --title "Issue Title" --body "Description of the issue"
+    ```
+    
+    After running this command, you’ll get an issue number in the output. Note this number as it will be used to create a branch.
+    
+
+### 2. **Create a Branch for the Issue**
+
+1. **Create a Branch**:
+Use the `gh` CLI to create a branch associated with the issue. The `gh` CLI can automatically create a branch for you based on the issue number. In this case, the `<issue_number>` is 989.
+    
+    ```bash
+    $ gh issue develop -c 989
+    github.com/NASA-IMPACT/COSMOS/tree/989-make-coding-syntax-consistent                                                                                                                          
+    From https://github.com/NASA-IMPACT/COSMOS                                                                                                                                                    
+     * [new branch]      989-make-coding-syntax-consistent -> origin/989-make-coding-syntax-consistent
+    
+    ```
+    
+    This command creates a new branch named `<issue_number>-issue` and switches to it. This branch will be used to work on the issue.
+    
+2. **Make Your Changes and Push:**
+Edit files, add code, or make any changes needed to address the issue. Commit your changes and push the branch to the remote repository.
+    
+    ```bash
+    git add .
+    git commit -m "Fixes issue #<issue_number>"
+    git push origin <issue_number>-issue
+    ```
+    
+
+### 3. **Create a Pull Request**
+
+1. **Create the Pull Request**:
+After pushing the branch, create a pull request using the `gh pr create` command:
+    
+    ```bash
+    gh pr create --base dev --head <issue_number>-issue --title "Title of the Pull Request" --body "Description of the changes"
+    ```
+    
+    - **`-base`**: The base branch you want to merge your changes into (`dev` in our case)
+    - **`-head`**: The branch that contains your changes (e.g., `<issue_number>-issue`).
+    - **`-title`**: The title of the pull request.
+    - **`-body`**: The description or body of the pull request.
+    
+    This command will create a pull request from your branch into the base branch specified.
+    
+2. **Review and Merge**:
+Once the pull request is created, you can review it on GitHub and merge it if everything looks good.