Finding Open Source Projects to Contribute To
Source: Dev.to
Finding open source projects to contribute to is usually harder than people make it sound. Most articles give the same standard advice—search for “good first issues” and filter by labels. In reality, this often falls short because maintainers forget to label issues, and many “good first issues” belong to old or inactive projects, wasting your time.
Follow Active Contributors
A better approach is to follow active open‑source people rather than just staring at repositories. When you follow contributors and maintainers you trust, your GitHub feed becomes a powerful tool. You start seeing the pull requests they open, the issues they interact with, and the new projects they star.
This gives you visibility into living projects instead of abandoned ones. It’s much easier to join projects this way because you’re walking into a space that already has activity around it.
Contribute by Testing, Not Just Coding
Most people overlook the fact that contributing isn’t limited to opening pull requests. In my first year of open source I mostly contributed by testing projects: running them locally, using the features, and actively looking for problems.
These problems can be anything from accessibility issues or broken UI on mobile screens to small performance lags or grammar errors in the documentation. All of these details matter. When you find them, open an issue. You can take on a few yourself or leave them for other beginners to tackle. This helps maintainers more than you think and gets you familiar with the codebase at the same time.
Use Curated Discovery Channels
Another reliable way to find active projects is through trusted X (Twitter) accounts that share open‑source opportunities. The verified accounts I follow are:
They post a wide range of projects with different tech stacks, so you can choose something that matches your current skill level or interests.
Don’t Ignore Small Projects
I always tell beginners not to ignore small projects. Many people only want to contribute to popular repositories with thousands of stars, but those projects started small too.
Smaller projects are usually more open to beginners and have maintainers who respond faster. You often learn the most in places where you’re not competing with hundreds of other contributors. Start small to build your experience, then move into larger communities when you feel ready.
Finding projects isn’t always straightforward, but there are better ways than relying on labels. Follow active contributors, test real projects, open issues, and don’t overlook the smaller repos. This approach keeps you in the flow of active work and leads to more meaningful contributions.