Fixes DEV-301 and Fixes DEV-298

CONTRIBUTING.md

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+# Contributing
+
+This project is completely open source and welcomes any and all open source
+contributions. The workflow for contributing is to make a fork of the
+repository. You can claim an issue in the issues tab or start a new thread to
+indicate a feature or bug fix you are working on. 
+
+Once you have finished your contribution make a PR , and it will be reviewed by
+a project manager. Feel free to join us in our
+[discord](http://discord.gg/plasticlabs) to discuss your changes or get help.
+
+Your changes will undergo a period of testing and discussion before finally
+being entered into the `main` branch and being staged for release
+
+## Local Development
+
+Below is a guide on setting up a local environment for running the Honcho
+Server.
+
+> This guide was made using a M1 Macbook Pro. For any compatibility issues
+> on different platforms please raise an Issue.
+
+### Docker
+
+The API can be run using docker-compose. The `docker-compose.yml.example` file can be copied to `docker-compose.yml` and the environment variables can be set in the `.env` file.
+
+```bash
+cd honcho/api
+cp docker-compose.yml.example docker-compose.yml
+[ update the file with openai key and other wanted environment variables ]
+docker compose up -d
+```
+
+#### Manually
+
+The API can be run either by installing the necessary dependencies and then
+specifying the appropriate environment variables.
+
+1. Create a virtualenv and install the API's dependencies
+
+```bash
+cd honcho/api/ # change to the api directory
+poetry shell # Activate virutal environment
+poetry install # install dependencies
+```
+
+2. Copy the `.env.template` file and specify the type of database and
+   connection_uri. For testing sqlite is fine. The below example uses an
+   in-memory sqlite database.
+
+> Honcho has been tested with Postgresql and PGVector
+
+```env
+DATABASE_TYPE=postgres
+CONNECTION_URI=postgresql://testuser:testpwd@localhost:5432/honcho
+```
+
+3. launch a postgresd with pgvector enabled with docker-compose
+
+```bash
+cd honcho/api/local
+docker-compose up -d
+```
+
+4. Run the API via uvicorn
+
+```bash
+cd honcho/api # change to the api directory
+poetry shell # Activate virtual environment if not already enabled
+python -m uvicorn src.main:app --reload
+```
+
+#### Deploy on Fly
+
+The API can also be deployed on fly.io. Follow the [Fly.io
+Docs](https://fly.io/docs/getting-started/) to setup your environment and the
+`flyctl`.
+`flyctl`.
+
+Once `flyctl` is set up use the following commands to launch the application:
+
+```bash
+cd honcho/api
+flyctl launch --no-deploy # Follow the prompts and edit as you see fit
+cat .env | flyctl secrets import # Load in your secrets
+flyctl deploy # Deploy with appropriate environment variables
+```
+
+
+## Self-Hosting 
+