X-Git-Url: http://git.bitcoin.ninja/index.cgi?p=rust-lightning;a=blobdiff_plain;f=CONTRIBUTING.md;h=3cf463ba02e220b7f1e12605398c344fc3d79628;hp=9ddd792b238c57dae399b19d0d1a7abf86e12181;hb=refs%2Fheads%2F2021-07-broken-beta;hpb=58e4ce251e202cacadb82341ed16d299057fc646

diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 9ddd792b..3cf463ba 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -113,6 +113,14 @@ rustup component add clippy
 cargo clippy
 ```
 
+Significant structures that users persist should always have their serialization methods (usually
+`Writeable::write` and `ReadableArgs::read`) begin with
+`write_ver_prefix!()`/`read_ver_prefix!()` calls, and end with calls to
+`write_tlv_fields!()`/`read_tlv_fields!()`.
+
+Updates to the serialized format which has implications for backwards or forwards compatibility
+must be included in release notes.
+
 Security
 --------