docs: add Origin section, CONTRIBUTING.md, and FUNDING.yml

Three additions to make the repo welcoming and scoped:

  - README appendix: short note on the project's origin (Jason's idea
    since 2024, AI-assisted authoring and code) and an explicit
    out-of-scope list — debates about AI authorship, lists of
    trustworthy/untrustworthy signers, political/religious/personal
    philosophy. HTMLTrust is a mechanism, not a value judgment.
  - CONTRIBUTING.md: contribution flow, in-scope and out-of-scope
    items, license expectations, AI-assisted contribution disclosure
    norm, terse code of conduct.
  - .github/FUNDING.yml: GitHub Sponsors (jt55401) primary plus the
    secondary channels matching Jason's other repos.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: jt55401

.github/FUNDING.yml

@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+# GitHub Sponsors (primary)
+github: [jt55401]
+
+# Secondary channels
+custom:
+  - https://paypal.me/jt55401
+  - https://venmo.com/Jason-Grey-1
+  - bitcoin:1CJDZEJD86viU1L3kewMmXyx7VyPNcwzB9
+  - ethereum:0xbC1240fe5F8e0732F7A0daA132a30982459Af5b3

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+# Contributing
+
+Thanks for helping move HTMLTrust forward.
+
+## Contribution Flow
+
+1. Fork the repository.
+2. Create a branch for your change.
+3. Run the project's existing checks (tests, linters, conformance vectors —
+   see the README for the specific commands).
+4. Open a pull request against `main`.
+
+For larger changes (a new resolver, a new normalization phase, a new spec
+section), open an issue first to talk about scope. Saves everyone time.
+
+## What's in scope
+
+- Code, tests, and conformance vectors that improve any of the reference
+  implementations.
+- Spec clarifications, examples, and edits that fix ambiguity.
+- Bug fixes, security fixes, performance improvements.
+- New language bindings of the canonicalization library that pass the
+  conformance suite.
+
+## What's out of scope
+
+HTMLTrust is a mechanism, not a value judgment. The project does **not**
+accept contributions or issues for:
+
+- Debates over whether AI should or shouldn't be used to author software or specifications.
+- Lists of "approved" vs "disapproved" signers.
+- Political, religious, or philosophical positions on what content should be trusted.
+- Trust directory operator policies — those belong to the directory operators.
+
+The protocol is deliberately neutral so anyone can sign anything they
+publish and any user can decide for themselves whom to trust. If you want
+to debate the answers, that's a different project.
+
+## Legal and Attribution
+
+- By submitting a contribution, you agree your change is provided under the
+  repository's license (`PolyForm-Noncommercial-1.0.0` for code repos,
+  `CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0` for the spec and website).
+- Keep existing copyright, license, and notice text intact.
+- AI-assisted contributions are fine. If the contribution is substantial,
+  briefly disclose the tools used in the PR description.
+
+## Code of Conduct
+
+Be technical. Be precise. Don't waste people's time.

README.md

@@ -57,3 +57,19 @@ The compiled PDF will be output as `paper/htmltrust.pdf`.
 
 
 This work is licensed under [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
+
+## Origin & Contributions
+
+HTMLTrust is an idea I (Jason Grey) have been chewing on since 2024. I'm not an academic — I'm an engineer with a day job and a family — so the spec, the reference implementations, and most of this prose have been written with significant help from AI tools acting as research assistant, technical writer, and pair programmer. I wrote the original architectural sketches and reviewed every line; the assistants filled in the gaps and saved me from re-typing the same explanation for the hundredth time.
+
+**Contributions are welcome — human or AI-assisted, doesn't matter to me.** What matters is whether the code, the spec text, or the conformance vectors move the project forward. Open a PR.
+
+What this project is **not** a forum for:
+
+- Debates about whether AI should be used to write code or specifications.
+- Opinions on who is or isn't trustworthy on the web.
+- Politics, religion, professional practice, or personal philosophy.
+
+HTMLTrust is a mechanism — a way for *anyone* to sign content they publish and for *anyone* to decide whom they trust, on their own terms. The project takes no position on what the right answers are; it just provides the tools. If you want to debate the answers, there are entire continents of the internet better suited to it.
+
+If this work is useful to you and you'd like to support it, see [GitHub Sponsors](https://github.com/sponsors/jt55401) or the other channels in [`.github/FUNDING.yml`](.github/FUNDING.yml).