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Krish Verma
Krish Verma

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Ankita is looking for contributors — here's what you'd actually build

#opensource #hacktoberfest #node #electron

Hacktoberfest: Maintainer Spotlight

I'm Krish, a developer from India. For the past 8 months I've been building Ankita — a free, open-source desktop AI assistant. Terminal + Electron app, plugin/skill system, local-first by design. It runs scheduled jobs on its own, has a live browser that clicks and types on real pages, and talks to you over Telegram.

It's real and it ships: v2.4.3 is out, there's a real test suite under test/ that runs with npm test, and the releases are being downloaded (55 across all releases so far).

I'm looking for contributors. Not free labor for my roadmap — people who want to learn real-world Node.js and Electron by building something people actually use.

What the codebase looks like

The core agent is plain Node.js modules with a small dependency footprint; the heavy deps live only where they have to — Electron for the desktop shell, Playwright for the live browser. The layout:

  • Tool catalog (tools/) — one module per tool, grouped by domain: filesystem, git, web, browser, images, automation. Tools declare whether they need approval; the agent loop respects it.
  • Skills (skills/) — markdown playbooks the agent loads on demand: ankita-dev, commit-review, web-research, bug-repro, release-notes. Contributing a skill is a legit first PR.
  • Automation — routines, page watches, and a Telegram inbox that run headless, with approval diffs pushed to your phone.
  • Desktop (desktop/) — Electron + React: chat, browser stage with takeover, personas, plugin management.
  • Memory — personal + project-scoped, with list/edit/forget. Your data stays on your machine.

What you'd actually build

These are real open issues, each with its current state verified in the issue body:

  • #41 — Multiple custom providers. Right now there's one API_BASE. Add 3–5 named custom provider slots switchable at runtime. Scoped, well-defined, good first issue.
  • #42 — New verified skills. Write skill playbooks in the existing format. Every tool you reference must exist in the repo — I check. good first issue, hacktoberfest.
  • #43 — Safer Composio handling. Connected Gmail/Drive actions currently run without approval prompts. Design approval tiers: reads free, mutations ask. Meatier, for someone who wants a real design problem. help wanted.
  • #40 — More chat channels. Telegram is the only two-way channel. Extract a channel interface, add Discord. help wanted.

What I've set up for you

  • CONTRIBUTING.md — short setup (npm install, npm test, npm link), strict but fair rules
  • Labeled good first issue / help wanted tickets — actually scoped, with the verified current state written into each issue
  • PRs reviewed by me personally, every contributor credited in the release notes
  • Hacktoberfest-friendly: merged October PRs count

If you're in

Repo: https://github.com/akyourowngames/A.N.K.I.T.A

If you've been waiting for a "good first issue" that isn't a toy repo — this is a living codebase with real releases and a maintainer who actually merges. Come build.

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