How My AI Projects Hit the Jackpot in Hacktoberfest - A Maintainer's Tale

Shraddha — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 21:15:06 +0000

Every October, developers around the world dive into Hacktoberfest — a month of open-source fun, creativity, and collaboration. This time, I decided to go all in: instead of just contributing, I wanted to maintain and grow my own AI-powered projects.

And wow — in just 10 days, the journey has been incredible!

Two of my personal projects, MCP-for-Database and Terminal_CLI_Agent, are already gaining stars, forks, and contributors. Let me take you behind the scenes. 👇

MCP-for-Database — Giving AI a Way to Understand Databases

I’ve always loved building AI systems, but one challenge kept bothering me — AI can’t easily understand databases. You have to manually query data, define schemas, and spoon-feed context.

So, I built MCP-for-Database — a bridge between AI models and your databases, inspired by the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

It allows AI agents to fetch and interpret structured data seamlessly, so they can generate accurate, schema-aware answers.

Features So Far

Connects any LLM (like OpenAI, Anthropic, or Gemini) to SQL/NoSQL databases
Fetches schema + metadata for context-aware querying
Supports RAG pipelines and database-driven assistants
Makes querying as simple as: “Show me top 10 customers by revenue”

If you’re as excited about this as I am, check it out on GitHub: MCP-for-Database

# Clone it locally
git clone https://github.com/Limeload/mcp-for-database.git
cd mcp-for-database
pip install -r requirements.txt

Why I maintain it?:

Because I want AI agents to interact intelligently with structured data — not just with text. I believe open source can make this capability accessible to everyone, not just big tech companies.

Terminal_CLI_Agent — Talk to Your Terminal Like a Teammate

The second project, Terminal_CLI_Agent, is my take on making the command line a little more... human.

I spend most of my dev life inside the terminal — so I thought, what if I could just tell it what I want in plain English?

That’s exactly what this AI-powered CLI assistant does.
It listens, interprets, executes, and even explains commands.

Current Features

Natural language → shell command execution
Integrations with Docker, Git, AWS, etc.
“Explain mode” that teaches you what each command means
Extensible architecture — build your own command plugins

Here’s the GitHub repo: Terminal_CLI

# Try it locally
git clone https://github.com/manikonda-rao/terminal_cli_agent.git
cd terminal_cli_agent
python -m src.cli.main

Why I built it?:

Because sometimes, dev life needs a sidekick — one that understands commands, automates boring tasks, and helps you learn on the go.

How You Can Contribute?

Hacktoberfest is all about collaboration, and I’d love to have more contributors join in!

Here’s how you can help:

Star the repositories to show support
Fork them to your profile
Open issues if you find bugs or want to suggest features
Submit pull requests for fixes, documentation, or enhancements
Even small contributions — like improving README files or adding test cases — make a huge difference.

If you’re passionate about AI, DevOps, or developer productivity, these projects are a great way to get started.

Final Thoughts

We’re just 10 days into Hacktoberfest 2025, and the energy is unreal.
Maintaining open-source AI projects has already taught me more about documentation, collaboration, and innovation than any tutorial could.

Both MCP-for-Database and Terminal_CLI_Agent started as late-night ideas — but they’re quickly growing into tools that developers can actually use.

So if you’re reading this — jump in, contribute, or even just drop a star. Let’s build smarter AI tools together.

👉 Star, Fork & Start Contributing Today!

Maintainer @shraddharao_

Hacktoberfest 2025 Contributor

This is a submission for the 2025 Hacktoberfest Writing Challenge: Maintainer Spotlight

SpendWise - Budget management app (Ruby on Rails + React) - Part 2

Shraddha — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 14:00:00 +0000

One of the first steps is setting up a clear structure for the application’s data flow. That’s where an ERD (Entity Relationship Diagram) comes in handy. It’s an essential tool to map out how different entities (like users, transactions, budgets, etc.) will interact within the app.

What’s an ERD and Why It’s Important?
For those unfamiliar, an ERD is a visual representation of how entities within a system relate to each other. It outlines the relationships between the various models (tables in the database), helping to visualize data flow and potential connections.

In my case, the ERD will serve as a guide for defining my app’s database structure and understanding the relationships between users, budgets, transactions, and more. This upfront planning ensures a smoother coding process when building the Rails models and setting up the React components.

The Core Entities in My App
Here’s a sneak peek at the main entities and relationships I’m planning for:

User: The core entity that will be linked to multiple budgets and transactions.
Budgets: Users can create multiple budgets, each with a unique name and set of financial goals.
Transactions: Each budget will track income and expenses, allowing users to manage and categorize their spending.
Categories: Budgets and transactions will be grouped into categories for better organization and insights.

Diagramming the Relationships
Here’s the breakdown of the relationships I’m considering:

A User can have multiple Budgets (one-to-many relationship).
A Budget can have multiple Transactions (one-to-many relationship).
Transactions will belong to both a Budget and a Category (many-to-one relationship).

To visually map out this ERD, I’m using a really cool tool called dbdiagram.io. It’s simple to use, and it provides a clear, interactive display of your database structure. If you're working on a similar project, I highly recommend checking it out—you can find other tools like -

What’s Next?
Now that I’ve mapped out the ERD, I’m ready to dive into coding the database models and associations in Rails. In my next post, I’ll cover how I’m setting up validations, implementing user authentication, and more.

Stay tuned for more updates as I continue to build out this project!

DEV Community: Shraddha