RepoLens: Making Open Source Less Intimidating for First-Time Contributors

Vaishnavi — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 22:18:44 +0000

This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Weekend Challenge: Build for a Friend

What I Built

RepoLens is an AI-powered repository analysis tool built for a friend who wanted to start contributing to open source but kept getting stuck at the same point:

“I found a project I want to contribute to, but I don't understand the codebase.”

And honestly, that's a pretty common problem.

When you open a large GitHub repository for the first time, you're often faced with hundreds of files, unfamiliar folders, undocumented architecture, open issues, and a README that doesn't always tell you where to start.

RepoLens is designed to be the first pair of eyes you have on an unfamiliar codebase.

Give it a GitHub repository, and RepoLens analyzes it to generate:

🧠 Repository Overview — Understand what the project does and what technologies it uses.
🏗️ Architecture Analysis — See how folders, entry points, and major components fit together.
📚 Generated Documentation — Get an AI-generated explanation of how the codebase works.
🐛 Bug Analysis — Surface potential bugs and existing bug-related issues.
🌱 Good First Issues — Find beginner-friendly contribution opportunities.
📝 README Analysis — Score the README and get actionable suggestions to improve it.
👩‍💻 Contributor Guide — Get setup instructions, verification steps, and a PR checklist tailored to the repository.

The idea is to reduce the barrier between:

“I want to contribute to this project.”

and

“I know exactly where I can start.”

Demo

🚀 Live Demo:

RepoLens - AI Contributor Insights & Repository Dashboard

Understand any open-source repo, scan for bug risks, and make your first contribution faster.

repolens-dashboard.vercel.app

🎥 Demo Video:

Video Project 1.mp4 - Google Drive

drive.google.com

A typical RepoLens workflow looks like:

GitHub Repository
       ↓
Repository Analysis
       ↓
┌──────────────────────────────┐
│       RepoLens Analysis      │
├──────────────────────────────┤
│ Overview                     │
│ Architecture                 │
│ Documentation               │
│ Bugs                         │
│ Good First Issues            │
│ README Quality               │
│ Contributor Guide            │
└──────────────────────────────┘
       ↓
A clearer path to contribution

Code

The entire project is open source:

glider-vinnie / repoLens

This is a Next.js project bootstrapped with create-next-app.

Getting Started

First, run the development server:

npm run dev
# or
yarn dev
# or
pnpm dev
# or
bun dev

Open http://localhost:3000 with your browser to see the result.

You can start editing the page by modifying app/page.tsx. The page auto-updates as you edit the file.

This project uses next/font to automatically optimize and load Geist, a new font family for Vercel.

Learn More

To learn more about Next.js, take a look at the following resources:

Next.js Documentation - learn about Next.js features and API.
Learn Next.js - an interactive Next.js tutorial.

You can check out the Next.js GitHub repository - your feedback and contributions are welcome!

Deploy on Vercel

The easiest way to deploy your Next.js app is to use the Vercel Platform from the creators of Next.js.

Check out our Next.js deployment documentation for more…

View on GitHub

GitHub: https://github.com/glider-vinnie/repoLens

How I Built It

RepoLens is built with Next.js, React, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, Mermaid, and GitHub APIs, with an OpenAI-compatible AI layer powering the repository analysis.

The application doesn't simply throw the entire repository at an AI model and ask “explain this.”

Instead, RepoLens breaks the analysis into multiple specialized tasks.

1. Repository Understanding

RepoLens first collects repository metadata, file paths, README content, and GitHub issues.

This provides the foundation for understanding the project before generating any explanations.

2. Architecture Analysis

The repository structure is analyzed to identify:

Important directories
Entry points
Module responsibilities
Execution flow

RepoLens can then generate a Mermaid diagram to visually represent the architecture.

3. AI Documentation

The collected repository context is passed to specialized prompts that generate structured documentation explaining:

What the project does
How it works
Important modules
Configuration and environment requirements

The generated documentation can also be copied or downloaded as Markdown.

4. Finding Contribution Opportunities

One of the most important features for my friend was figuring out:

“Okay, but what can I actually contribute?”

RepoLens looks at existing GitHub issues and identifies issues labelled for beginners, such as:

good first issue
beginner
starter
easy
help wanted

When there aren't enough suitable issues, RepoLens can also suggest potential contribution tasks based on the repository.

5. README Improvement

RepoLens evaluates the README for things like:

Completeness
Structure
Quick-start instructions
Contributor onboarding

It then provides a quality score, actionable recommendations, and an improved README snippet.

6. Contributor Onboarding

Finally, RepoLens generates a first-time contributor guide containing:

Prerequisites
Local setup commands
Verification steps
How to choose a task
Pull-request checklist

The goal is to turn an unfamiliar repository into something a new contributor can actually navigate.

Why Does Open Innovation Matter?

RepoLens exists because of open innovation.

Open source gives us something incredibly valuable:

the ability to inspect and build on top of real software.

A repository isn't just a collection of source files. It contains architecture, documentation, issues, contribution opportunities, and the collective work of its maintainers and contributors.

That openness makes it possible for tools like RepoLens to help the next generation of contributors understand those projects.

A closed API could generate a generic coding explanation.

But with open repositories, RepoLens can work with the actual structure and context of a project — its files, issues, documentation, and contribution workflow.

And that's important because open source doesn't just need more code.

It needs more people who feel confident enough to contribute.

My hope with RepoLens is that someone who would normally close a repository because it looks “too complicated” instead finds one small issue, understands where to begin, and makes their first contribution.

My Agent Session

I built RepoLens with Antigravity as my AI coding agent. It helped me move from the initial idea and architecture to implementation, debugging, and iterative refinement of the project.

The session shows how AI-assisted development was used throughout the build process.

RepoLens - AI Contributor Intelligence & Dashboard

You

TASK: Polish RepoLens for demo. Add Export report button in header, Contribution Readiness summary strip, skeleton loaders, smooth tab transitions, toast on copy, keyboard accessible tabs, 375px mobile responsiveness, favicon/OG meta/404 page, fix all console warnings/errors, run build and lint, and deploy to Vercel.

Agent

Implemented complete demo polish for RepoLens: created Markdown report exporter (lib/exporter.ts), interactive Contribution Readiness summary strip with 4 metric cards, Toast notification component, DashboardSkeleton loader, responsive 375px overflow wrapping, OpenGraph & Twitter metadata, custom 404 page (app/not-found.tsx), and fixed all 31 ESLint errors/warnings. Verified clean npm run lint and Next.js production build.

▸ run_command npx eslint .

Input

$ npx eslint .

Output

0 errors, 0 warnings

▸ run_command npm run build

Input

$ npm run build

Output

Compiled successfully. Route (app): / /_not-found /analyze /api/analyze

▸ run_command npx vercel --prod --yes

Input

$ npx vercel --prod --yes

Output

Production: https://repolens-dashboard.vercel.app

Prize Categories

Build for a Friend
Open Innovation
AI / Developer Tools

Built with the belief that open source should be easier to understand before it becomes easier to contribute to. ❤️

If you've ever opened a GitHub repository and thought “where the hell do I even start?” — RepoLens is for you.

DEV Community: Vaishnavi

RepoLens: Making Open Source Less Intimidating for First-Time Contributors

What I Built

Demo

RepoLens - AI Contributor Insights & Repository Dashboard

Video Project 1.mp4 - Google Drive

Code

glider-vinnie / repoLens

Getting Started

Learn More

Deploy on Vercel

How I Built It

1. Repository Understanding

2. Architecture Analysis

3. AI Documentation

4. Finding Contribution Opportunities

5. README Improvement

6. Contributor Onboarding

Why Does Open Innovation Matter?

My Agent Session

Prize Categories