Hey friends!
It's been a while since I tried to find open source projects to contribute to as I've been swamped with some projects myself.
Someone approached me. They want to learn and start to contribute to open source. They're familiar with GitHub for their own projects, but never contribute to any open source project.
They tried looking for beginners friendly issues on GitHub with no luck. Well, I immediately tried this myself and got overwhelmed with millions of issues only for JavaScript! So, I understand the struggle. 😅
If you're maintaining an open source project or know beginners-friendly open source projects that open to new contributors (preferably JavaScript, TypeScript, React, or NextJS), please send them my way in the comments below! 😊
Top comments (8)
Hey Ayu! Surpringly enough, me and @codingwithjiro made our Chrome Extension open source to anyone and would love to have them contribute!
github.com/FrancisTR/ClassifierAI
The best part it is in Vanilla HTML, CSS, and JS. Feel free to contribute if you like!
Good starting point is reading this post about it where me and Elmar submitted this project as a challenge on DEV!
GitHub “Finish-Up-A-Thon” Challenge Submission
Two Devs and a Copilot Created ClassifierAI: A Prototype Chrome Extension that Automatically Detects AI-Generated Content on DEV!
Yow we could add ISSUE_TEMPLATES and add issues in it for easier contribution.
Awesome. Thanks, Elmar!
Thanks, Francis!
Hi! I came across your post and wanted to share a couple of ideas.
Have they looked through Good First Issue or First Contributions? I think these are great starting points for discovering beginner-friendly OSS opportunities and learning the contribution workflow.
Also, I've been putting together an OSS Contribution Toolkit—not a list of projects, but practical guides on making that first contribution. Hopefully it can help beginners get up to speed once they find a project they're interested in.
How Will We Become Open Source Contributors In an AI-Assisted World? -The OSS Toolkit
Hope this helps!
They've tried to look for issues by beginners friendly labels. and got overwhelmed because there are too many. And thanks for the resource!
Hey Ayu! I totally relate—my first open-source contribution was intimidating too.
I work mostly with TypeScript, React, Next.js, and Python, and I'm always happy to help beginners get started. I have a few projects with beginner-friendly tasks (docs, small bug fixes, and UI improvements) if your friend is interested.
GitHub: github.com/larrymargerum01
Everyone starts with their first PR. Good luck to them! 😊
Thanks so much, Larry!