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Claudio Tancredi

Posted on Apr 19

I built a gamified hub for open-source contributions, here's why

#opensource #github #beginners #gamification

The problem

Getting into open source is harder than it should be. You want to contribute, but where do you start? You search for "good first issue" on GitHub, scroll through hundreds of results, and most are stale, already claimed, or in repos you've never heard of. The discovery step kills your enthusiasm before you even begin.

What I built

Weekly Issue Arena is an automated system that proposes open-source issues every week and turns contributing into a lightweight game.

Every Friday at 17:00 UTC, a GitHub Action scans ~250 actively maintained repositories and pulls fresh issues into three categories:

Good First Issues: approachable entry points
Bug Fixes: real bugs waiting for a fix
Hard Issues: for those who want a challenge

Right now the arena proposes up to 44 issues per week across Python, C++, Rust, Go, TypeScript, Java, and more, from projects like PyTorch Lightning, Dragonfly, Sniffnet, and others.

Finding an issue takes two clicks

The homepage has a match flow: pick your language, and the arena shows one unclaimed issue for you. No scrolling, no evaluating dozens of candidates. If the first match isn't right, hit "Show me another" to cycle through others.

I used this exact flow myself to find and close my first issue this week. Picked Python, got matched with a documentation task in a compiler framework project, opened a PR, and it was merged the same day. The whole process from "I want to contribute" to "PR merged" took less than an hour, and most of that was the actual work, not the search.

That's the point: the arena removes the friction of finding something to work on, so you can spend your time on the contribution itself.

How it works

Visit the homepage - pick your language and get matched, or browse the full issue list
Fork the chosen repo and open a PR with a closing keyword (fixes #N)
When your PR merges, the arena detects it automatically and credits you with points

No registration. No sign-up. The system tracks everything through GitHub's public API.

Points go into a personal rank and a shared Arena Level. When enough contributors close enough issues, the arena levels up and unlocks more issues for everyone the following week. Individual effort compounds into a shared benefit.

Why gamification?

Not because contributing needs to be a game. But because the first contribution is the hardest one to make, and a small feedback loop with points, a rank, and a profile card can be the small thing that gets someone from "I should try open source" to actually opening a PR.

Every contributor gets a personal profile page with their stats and a badge they can embed in their GitHub README. First-time contributors get a welcome thread in the repo's Discussions. It's a small thing, but it signals that someone noticed.

The stack

The whole system runs on GitHub Actions and Python scripts, with no external infrastructure, databases, or backends. Issue data, scores, and leaderboard state live in JSON files committed directly to the repo. The site is a static Astro frontend deployed to GitHub Pages.

The automation handles:

Weekly repo discovery and issue fetching
Hourly PR detection and leaderboard updates
Dynamic README updates with live issue tables and leaderboard
SVG badge generation for contributor profiles
Discussion notifications for new and returning contributors
Arena Level tracking and milestone announcements

What's next

The arena is early. I'm using it myself and the system works end to end. Now it needs more people to try it.

If you're looking for a place to start contributing to open source, or you just want to pick up an issue on a Friday afternoon, take a look:

claudiotancredi / weekly-issue-arena

A gamified hub for open-source issues. Every week, this repo fetches a fresh batch of issues. Climb the leaderboard and level up your skills! ⭐

⚔️ Weekly Issue Arena

A weekly-refreshed hub of open-source issues, with a leaderboard for contributors who close them.

Find an issue. Submit a PR. Earn points. Climb the leaderboard.

No registration. No sign-ups. Just open source.

Browse Issues & Leaderboard on the Website →

New here? The homepage now matches you with one unclaimed issue in your favorite language in 2 clicks, plus a 4-step PR walkthrough. Try it →

The arena levels up. Every contribution adds to a shared pool of points. When the pool crosses a threshold, more issues unlock for everyone, every week. We're all building this together.