10 Essential Open Source Projects for Beginners to Contribute to in 2024

Source: Dev.to

Getting into open source can feel like showing up to a party where everyone already knows each other. You want to help, but where do you even start? Contributing to real projects builds your skills, grows your network, and makes your GitHub profile actually matter. In 2024, the barrier to entry is lower than ever—if you know where to look.

first‑contributions / first‑contributions

GitHub:

This repository is a tutorial disguised as a repo. It walks you through forking, cloning, creating a branch, making a change, and opening a pull request—all with zero risk.

git clone https://github.com/your-username/first-contributions.git
cd first-contributions
git checkout -b add-your-name
# Edit the README.md file, add your name
git add .
git commit -m "Add  to Contributors list"
git push origin add-your-name

Then open a PR. The repo has helped over 500 k people make their first contribution.

freeCodeCamp / freeCodeCamp

GitHub:

FreeCodeCamp’s codebase is massive, but issues are clearly labeled with first-timers-only, help-wanted, and good first issue. Most beginner work happens in the /curriculum or /client folders—updating lessons, fixing typos, improving UI components.

Example fix (in a lesson markdown file):

- Use const to declare variables.
+ Use `const` to declare variables that won't be reassigned.

The project uses GitHub Discussions and a large Discord community.

Public Lab / publiclab.org

GitHub:

Public Lab builds open tools for environmental justice. The codebase is mostly Ruby on Rails and JavaScript, but they also welcome documentation, design, and outreach help.

Typical task: improving documentation in .md files.

# After forking and cloning
cd publiclab.org
# Edit a file like /wiki/using-git.md
git add .
git commit -m "Fix broken link in Git guide"
git push

They use the tags status:help-wanted and first-timers-only.

simple‑icons (Mifi Labs)

GitHub:

The project provides SVG icons for popular brands. Adding a new icon is well‑documented.

# In your terminal
npm run add -- --icon="MyBrand" --source="path/to/logo.svg" --color="#FF5722"

Icons without proper licensing are rejected, so check the brand’s media guidelines first.

WordPress / Gutenberg

GitHub:

Gutenberg is the block editor for WordPress (used by ~43 % of websites). It’s built with React and Node.js. Issues are labeled good first issue and status:unconfirmed.

Common beginner tasks:

• Fix typos in UI strings
• Improve block inspector controls
• Write or update Jest tests

Example test fix:

// Before
expect(wrapper.text()).toBe('Click me');

// After
expect(wrapper.find('button').text()).toBe('Click Me');

apache / superset

GitHub:

Superset is a data‑visualization platform (Python/Flask + React). The project welcomes new contributors and uses good-first-issue labels.

Easy wins:

• Improve error messages or form validation in the UI

// In a React component
{errorMessage && (
  <div className="error">{errorMessage}</div>
)}

• Fix Python logging

# Before
print("Error occurred")

# After
app.logger.error("Dataset fetch failed: %s", str(e))

They have an active Slack community for support.

firstcontributions / community

GitHub:

This repository focuses on building community around open‑source contributions. It’s a space to ask questions, share wins, and help others make their first PR. No code changes are required to get involved—just join the conversation.