One Repo: 139 Open Hacktoberfest Issues, 4 Islands, Zero Guesswork

One repository, about 139 open issues labelled hacktoberfest, and a choice to make before you start: which one?

I counted those issues in the tdk-cli-core repo. The count will have moved by the time you read this. The useful part is not the number. It is that the issues sort into four islands, and each island has its own ladder of difficulty.

The four islands

• Docs Harbor holds the documentation and translation work, mostly 8 kyu. Translation issues are split one page per issue, in languages from French to Korean.
• Test Atoll adds tests for code that already works, at 7 kyu to 6 kyu.
• Engine Volcano refactors the Docker and Compose generation, at 7 kyu to 6 kyu.
• CLI Cove covers commands, flags and error messages, the same range.

Each issue carries a difficulty label and an area label. difficulty: easy means a few hours with little repo knowledge. difficulty: medium means a day or two.

Where the 139 sit

By area, the open issues break down roughly like this, counting from the labels:

• about 44 documentation,
• about 16 CLI,
• about 9 TUI,
• about 5 engine,
• about 4 tests.

An issue can carry more than one area label, so the rows overlap slightly. The point stands: documentation is the biggest group, so it is the easiest place to start.

Your first week, in order

1. Pick a translation. Choose a language you read well. Each page becomes one issue, so you learn the docs by translating them.
2. Do one test. Once you are comfortable, take a 7 kyu test issue such as #1130, which covers Docker network setup and cleanup.
3. Try one small refactor. #1126 moves Compose load-balancer port parsing into one helper. Your existing tests tell you whether you broke anything.

Before you open a pull request

These rules are checked automatically, so read them first.

• Sign off every commit with git commit -s. Each commit needs a Signed-off-by line under the Developer Certificate of Origin. Without it, the pull request check fails.
• One issue per pull request. Keep the change small enough to review in one sitting.
• Read CONTRIBUTING.md for the labels and the process.
• Check lint by its exit code. Run the CI command and read $?. A pipe into tail hides a failing exit status.

A note on DEV challenges

This is a contribution guide, not a DEV challenge entry. The current challenge requires a new project built during its window, and pull requests to existing projects do not count. Enter a challenge with something new. The islands are the place to learn the habits.