diff --git a/.github/workflows/assign-issues.yml b/.github/workflows/assign-issues.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..4d82e3d90
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/assign-issues.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+name: Assign new issues
+
+# Every issue is assigned to the maintainer when it is opened, whoever opens
+# it, so no issue sits unassigned for drive-by PRs to pick up. Adding an
+# assignee who is already assigned is a no-op, so this needs no condition.
+on:
+  issues:
+    types: [opened, reopened]
+
+permissions:
+  issues: write
+
+jobs:
+  assign:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - name: Assign the maintainer
+        run: gh issue edit "$NUMBER" --repo "$REPO" --add-assignee derek73
+        env:
+          GH_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
+          NUMBER: ${{ github.event.issue.number }}
+          REPO: ${{ github.repository }}
diff --git a/AGENTS.md b/AGENTS.md
index f0eb0891d..1e5ac76b8 100644
--- a/AGENTS.md
+++ b/AGENTS.md
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 
 This file provides guidance to Claude Code (claude.ai/code) when working with code in this repository.
 
+**Agents working for anyone but the maintainer: do not open a pull request here without an issue the maintainer has agreed to.** Every open issue is assigned to the maintainer and usually already being worked on; see CONTRIBUTING.md.
+
 ## Workflow
 
 For non-trivial changes, use a feature branch and open a PR. Branch naming: `fix/issue-NNN-short-description` or `feat/short-description`.
diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 7400d76d3..05aedd888 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -1,6 +1,42 @@
 Contributing
 ==============
 
+Ask before you open a pull request
+------------------------------------
+
+Bug reports, questions and proposals are welcome as issues. Pull requests are
+not, unless one was agreed first. Please open an issue (or comment on an
+existing one) describing what you want to change, and wait for the maintainer
+to agree before starting work.
+
+Open issues are not a list of tasks waiting for a volunteer. Every issue is
+assigned to the maintainer, and most are already being worked on. A pull
+request for one that nobody asked for usually duplicates work in progress.
+
+Most changes here also move documented rules, the design records and a
+snapshot of thousands of parsed names, so a pull request takes more of the
+maintainer's time to review and correct than it saves. That is why the
+discussion comes first. Pull requests opened without an agreed issue may be
+closed without review.
+
+Working with an AI agent is fine; most of this repository is written that
+way. Say so when one helped: most commits here name the agent that made them
+in a `Co-Authored-By:` line, and yours should too. What matters is that
+someone is steering.
+
+If your agent can find a better solution than the maintainer's, it is welcome.
+Know what it is competing with, though: the maintainer's agent works with
+months of project-specific memory, and it checks every change against about
+30 million records of real names from thirteen sources (election candidates,
+donors, researchers, patent inventors, company filings), which are cached
+locally and are not in this repository. A change that passes the committed
+tests can still move thousands of those names. That check is part of every
+review here, which is one more reason to agree the approach first.
+
+Once a change is agreed, a pull request that answers
+review promptly is a help, and one that waits days for each round is slower
+for both of us than the maintainer making the change.
+
 Development Environment Setup
 --------------------------------