diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..5eaa2c7fd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+# Contributing to dqlite
+
+The dqlite team welcomes external contributions via GitHub pull
+requests. To get your PR merged, you need to sign [Canonical's
+contributor license agreement (CLA)][cla]. This is straightforward to
+do once you have an account on [Launchpad][lp]; if you don't, you can
+create one [here][signup].
+
+[cla]: https://ubuntu.com/legal/contributors
+[lp]: https://launchpad.net
+[signup]: https://launchpad.net/+login
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 5a26f5185..b07760902 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -70,6 +70,11 @@ sudo apt update
 sudo apt install libdqlite-dev
 ```
 
+Contributing
+------------
+
+See [CONTRIBUTING.md](./CONTRIBUTING.md).
+
 Build
 -----