diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index b8ae3cd..ae063f6 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -1,6 +1,17 @@
 # How to contribute
 
-We'd love to accept your patches and contributions to this project.
+We'd love to accept your patches and contributions to this project. However, please note our current temporary policy below.
+
+> [!IMPORTANT]
+> **Temporary Pause on External Contributions**
+> 
+> AX is currently undergoing a significant architectural redesign, and the codebase is highly unstable. To ensure we can focus on stabilizing the core framework, we are temporarily **pausing the acceptance of external Pull Requests**.
+> 
+> Please do not open Pull Requests at this time, as they are likely to conflict with ongoing changes and may be closed without review. Instead, we encourage you to:
+> - Open an **Issue** to propose feature requests or report bugs.
+> - Join discussions on existing issues to share your feedback.
+> 
+> We will update this guide once the core architecture stabilizes and we are ready to welcome contributions again. Thank you for your understanding and patience!
 
 ## Before you begin
 
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 4505f93..fb242ec 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -6,6 +6,9 @@
 > We are actively refining our core, resumption protocols,
 > and runtime specifications, which will introduce major breaking
 > changes prior to a stable release.
+>
+> **Temporary Policy:** We are temporarily pausing the acceptance of external Pull Requests while we stabilize the core architecture. We warmly encourage you to open Issues for feedback and feature requests instead.
+>
 > We will announce this project
 > widely soon. If you are interested in collaborating with us,
 > please reach out to **ax-dev@google.com**!
@@ -420,9 +423,8 @@ Below is an overview of our upcoming features and planned changes:
 Please refer to the [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) guide for instructions
 on how to contribute to this project.
 
-We are in the middle of a major refactor for AX, so we're holding off on
-accepting new contributions until the core stabilize.
-However, in the meantime, we encourage you to file bugs and
+We are currently undergoing a significant architectural redesign, and external contributions are temporarily paused.
+However, in the meantime, we warmly encourage you to file bugs and
 send feature requests.
 
 ## Acknowledgements