added a build script to make it easier for devs to launch

Author: Brandon-Perry

build.js

@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+/**
+ *
+ */
+
+import child_process from "child_process";
+import { dirname } from "path";
+import { fileURLToPath } from "url";
+
+const __dirname = dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url));
+
+const nextScript = `cd ${__dirname}/next-client && npm i && npm run build && npm run start`;
+const commonScript = `cd ${__dirname}/common && npm i && npm run build`;
+const expressScript = `cd ${__dirname}/express-pipeline && npm i && npm run build && npm run start`;
+
+const runScript = (script) =>
+  child_process.exec(
+    `osascript -e 'tell application \"Terminal\" to do script \"${script}\"'`,
+  );
+
+const commonProcesss = runScript(commonScript);
+
+commonProcesss.on("exit", function () {
+  console.log("finished build common folder");
+  const nextProcess = runScript(nextScript);
+  const expressProcess = runScript(expressScript);
+  nextProcess.on("exit", function () {
+    console.log("finished building nextjs app");
+  });
+
+  expressProcess.on("exit", function () {
+    console.log("finished building express app");
+  });
+});

contributing.md

@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+# Working with Talk to the City
+
+## Setup
+[See the setup instructions in README](./README.md#setup)
+
+## Working in DEV
+After you have finished the basic setup:
+
+1. run `npm i` at the root level
+2. run `npm run dev` at the root level. This will launch three different terminals
+    - the NextJS client dev server
+    - The Express app dev server
+    - A watcher for changes in `/common`
+    - Note: you can run these indepently by running `npm run dev` next/express folders and `npm run watch` in common.
+3. Go to `http://localhost:3000` to see the Next client
+
+
+## Tour De Repo
+
+There are four main folders to look at:
+- `/next-client`
+    - This is where the frontend client lives. 
+    - The two main features of it are the ability to submit data to the backend, and to render reports.
+- `/express-pipeline`
+    - This is the backend Express app that handles submissions and works with the LLM to generate JSON reports.
+    - Everything in `express-pipeline/src` will be transpiled into `/dist`. 
+- `/common`
+    - This is where shared type definitions are stored. It's symlinked with `next-client` and `/express-pipeline`.
+    - If you don't have the watcher running, you'll need to rebuild anytime there's a change. 
+- `/bin`
+    - Scripts for managing Docker images. The main one you'll need to use is `./bin/docker-build-gcloud.sh`
+
+Some general points:
+- The repo mostly uses TypeScript. Use TypeScript by default whenever you can.
+- Prettier is used for formatting. Code should always be formatted prior to being committed.
+- Husky is used for pre-commit hooks.
+- Zod is used for both types and parsing for any data shared across the frontend-backend. 
+
+## Submitting PRs
+
+TBD

package.json

@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
   "scripts": {
     "format": "npx prettier . --write",
     "dev": "node dev.js",
+    "build": "node build.js",
     "prepare": "husky"
   },
   "author": "Bruno Marnette",