diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -124,9 +124,17 @@
 
 6. Code formatting tools
 
+During submission of patches, arcanist will automatically run `arc lint` to
+enforce Bitcoin ABC code formatting standards, and often suggests changes.
 If code formatting tools do not install automatically on your system, you
-may have to install clang-format-7, autopep8 and flake8. clang-format-7 can be
-installed from https://releases.llvm.org/download.html or https://apt.llvm.org
+will have to install clang-format-7, autopep8 and flake8.
+
+To install clang-format-7 on Ubuntu (>= 18.04+updates) or Debian (>= 10):
+```
+sudo apt-get install clang-format-7
+```
+If not available in the distribution, clang-format-7 can be installed from
+https://releases.llvm.org/download.html or https://apt.llvm.org
 
 To install autopep8 and flake8 on Ubuntu:
 ```