Introduction
October has been an amazing month! This was my first time participating in Hacktoberfest, and the experience has been both exciting and educational. Over the past month, I contributed to multiple open-source projects, explored how large codebases are maintained, learned the processes behind Pull Requests (PRs), and gained confidence in making my work accepted by project maintainers.
Hacktoberfest taught me how open-source communities collaborate, how projects are structured, and the standards and measures maintainers follow to keep code clean and stable. Most importantly, it reinforced that contributing to open source isn’t just about coding, it’s about learning, communication, and teamwork.
My Contributions
NESY-Engine
I started small with NESY-Engine by improving the documentation of the HUD class. I added class summaries, detailed constructor explanations, property descriptions, and usage examples. This made it easier for developers to understand and use the HUD class.
Starting with a documentation task taught me the value of beginning small, building confidence, and understanding project structure before attempting more complex contributions. It also showed me the importance of clear, structured documentation for open-source projects.
OpenCTI
Issue: #12824 Pull Request: #12967
This was a small UI fix. The Playbook update drawer was incorrectly displaying "Update a decay rule" instead of "Update a playbook". I corrected the title in PlaybookEdition.tsx, ensuring it followed the proper i18n translation structure.
This contribution showed me that even small fixes matter, especially for user clarity, and taught me the importance of paying attention to UI details and consistency in a large project.
Kestra
Issue: #12090 Pull Request: #12148
In Kestra, the Pebble chunk filter was throwing type-casting exceptions when integers were used instead of Longs. I updated the filter to handle any Number type, added runtime checks, and wrote unit tests to confirm proper behavior.
This was a more challenging fix that taught me about Java type-casting, workflow logic, and the importance of writing robust unit tests. Successfully getting this PR merged boosted my confidence immensely.
Kaoto
Issue: #2637 Pull Request: #2669
I fixed drag-and-drop issues in nested workflow nodes by correcting component logic and testing different container setups. Though smaller in scope, this fix improved user experience significantly.
Contributing to Kaoto taught me that even minor UI improvements matter and that understanding the tool you work on makes contributions easier and more meaningful.
Reflections and Learnings
Looking back over October:
- I contributed to four projects and had all my PRs merged, which was incredibly satisfying.
- I learned how open-source projects are maintained, including testing standards, code reviews, and collaboration practices.
- My confidence in reading complex codebases, debugging issues, and making contributions accepted has grown tremendously.
- I realized that communication, asking questions, and submitting thoughtful PRs are just as important as writing code.
- Contributing to projects I actually use (like Kaoto) or widely-used platforms (like Kestra and OpenCTI) made the experience more rewarding.
Hacktoberfest showed me that open source is not just about contributing code,it’s about learning, exploring, and growing as a developer. I plan to continue contributing to open source in the future, and this first Hacktoberfest has motivated me to take on bigger and more complex projects.
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