diff --git a/docs/contrib/MakefileContract.md b/docs/contrib/MakefileContract.md
index ae604ca719..333f800403 100644
--- a/docs/contrib/MakefileContract.md
+++ b/docs/contrib/MakefileContract.md
@@ -138,3 +138,27 @@ Several of the rules exist for them.
   `$(shell sed ...)`.** That logic is in Python with unit tests.
   *Breaks:* a heuristic nobody can test, read, or run on a machine without
   that tool.
+
+## Directories
+
+A design's files are split over four directories so that where a file lands
+says what it is: the design, a measurement of it, a log, or scaffolding. One
+directory would work for the flow; four make the tree legible. What a file
+is decides its directory, not who reads it.
+
+- **`RESULTS_DIR` holds the design, in any format:** netlists, `.odb`,
+  `.def`, `.gds`, `.sdc`, routing guides, placement scripts, the checkpoint a
+  failed step leaves, and memory inventories.
+  *Breaks:* a flow or a user looking for the design finds part of it
+  elsewhere.
+- **`REPORTS_DIR` holds measurements of the design,** for tools or people to
+  read. No step's result depends on it.
+  *Breaks:* a flow that hands a step only the results has to carry reports
+  along.
+- **`LOG_DIR` holds logs,** and each step's metrics `.json` next to its log.
+  *Breaks:* `genReport.py` and the metrics tools miss a run's record.
+- **`OBJECTS_DIR` holds what is not the design:** files a step derives from
+  the platform (`klayout.lyt`), a step's own intermediate files
+  (`abc.constr`, `rtlmp/`, `surgery/`), caches, and stopgaps that wait for a
+  cleaner implementation.
+  *Breaks:* the design is mixed with scaffolding.