docs: contributing guide (#1970)

* Adds basic contributing guides.
* Simplifies Python development with a Makefile.

nodejs/CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+# Contributing to LanceDB Typescript
+
+This document outlines the process for contributing to LanceDB Typescript.
+For general contribution guidelines, see [CONTRIBUTING.md](../CONTRIBUTING.md).
+
+## Project layout
+
+The Typescript package is a wrapper around the Rust library, `lancedb`. We use
+the [napi-rs](https://napi.rs/) library to create the bindings between Rust and
+Typescript.
+
+* `src/`: Rust bindings source code
+* `lancedb/`: Typescript package source code
+* `__test__/`: Unit tests
+* `examples/`: An npm package with the examples shown in the documentation
+
+## Development environment
+
+To set up your development environment, you will need to install the following:
+
+1. Node.js 14 or later
+2. Rust's package manager, Cargo. Use [rustup](https://rustup.rs/) to install.
+3. [protoc](https://grpc.io/docs/protoc-installation/) (Protocol Buffers compiler)
+
+Initial setup:
+
+```shell
+npm install
+```
+
+### Commit Hooks
+
+It is **highly recommended** to install the [pre-commit](https://pre-commit.com/) hooks to ensure that your
+code is formatted correctly and passes basic checks before committing:
+
+```shell
+pre-commit install
+```
+
+## Development
+
+Most common development commands can be run using the npm scripts.
+
+Build the package
+
+```shell
+npm install
+npm run build
+```
+
+Lint:
+
+```shell
+npm run lint
+```
+
+Format and fix lints:
+
+```shell
+npm run lint-fix
+```
+
+Run tests:
+
+```shell
+npm test
+```
+
+To run a single test:
+
+```shell
+# Single file: table.test.ts
+npm test -- table.test.ts
+# Single test: 'merge insert' in table.test.ts
+npm test -- table.test.ts --testNamePattern=merge\ insert
+```

nodejs/README.md

@@ -36,37 +36,4 @@ The [quickstart](../basic.md) contains a more complete example.
 
 ## Development
 
-```sh
-npm run build
-npm run test
-```
-
-### Running lint / format
-
-LanceDb uses [biome](https://biomejs.dev/) for linting and formatting. if you are using VSCode you will need to install the official [Biome](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=biomejs.biome) extension.
-To manually lint your code you can run:
-
-```sh
-npm run lint
-```
-
-to automatically fix all fixable issues:
-
-```sh
-npm run lint-fix
-```
-
-If you do not have your workspace root set to the `nodejs` directory, unfortunately the extension will not work. You can still run the linting and formatting commands manually.
-
-### Generating docs
-
-```sh
-npm run docs
-
-cd ../docs
-# Asssume the virtual environment was created
-# python3 -m venv venv
-# pip install -r requirements.txt
-. ./venv/bin/activate
-mkdocs build
-```
+See [CONTRIBUTING.md](./CONTRIBUTING.md) for information on how to contribute to LanceDB.