diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 76f7cf5f4cc8..17f63d1868d6 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -1,5 +1,12 @@
 # Contributing to Nixpkgs
 
+This document is for people wanting to contribute to the implementation of Nixpkgs.
+This involves interacting with implementation changes that are proposed using [GitHub](https://github.com/) [pull requests](https://docs.github.com/pull-requests) to the [Nixpkgs](https://github.com/nixos/nixpkgs/) repository (which you're in right now).
+
+As such, a GitHub account is required, which you can sign up for [here](https://github.com/signup).
+Additionally this document assumes that you already know how to use GitHub and Git.
+If that's not the case, we recommend learning about it first [here](https://docs.github.com/en/get-started/quickstart/hello-world).
+
 ## (Proposing a change) | Submitting changes
 
 Note: contributing implies licensing those contributions