Every good hall of fame has wings. Here are the wings of TDK CLI's open Hacktoberfest issues, grouped by what you would learn rather than by how hard they look. Walk in, pick a wing, and take the exhibit that matches your week.
This is a curated list from the issue titles and labels I checked on October 18, 2026. I have not worked through most of these issues myself, so each entry says what the issue asks for, not how it turned out.
The Welcome Desk: start here
#1131: map the Starlark topology module boundaries
A documentation issue. Write a current map of the topology modules and how a service.json reaches the generated Compose and Tilt files. Writing the map forces you to read every module, which is the fastest tour of the engine you can take.
A translation issue in a language you read well. There are French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Japanese and Chinese versions of the same few docs pages. Each one is a single page, so you can finish one in an afternoon.
Stories From the Trenches: bugs that matter
These are real problems in the open list, worth reading even if you never submit a fix.
#713: getUsedPorts never sees existing ports
The title describes the bug: every new resource can get the same port. If you want to see how the port logic fits together, this is a good way in.
#710: service.json values reach the generated Compose file unvalidated
The title says that values from service.json can add YAML keys to the generated Compose file. Input validation is a good topic for a newcomer, and the issue is the kind of problem worth reading about before you change anything nearby.
#709: publish Traefik and Postgres ports on 127.0.0.1 by default
A security default. The issue proposes binding to localhost unless you opt out with TDK_BIND_ADDRESS. Read the tradeoffs before you pick it up.
#700: pytest tests/tilt-engine has 29 failing tests and runs in no workflow
A test suite that fails and never runs in CI. Fixing this is a big job, but reading the failures is a good tour of how the engine is tested.
The Testing Gallery: learn by adding checks
Tests for code that already works teach you the code without changing its behaviour.
#1130: cover generated Docker network initialization and cleanup commands (difficulty: easy, area: tests)
#1177: add tests for the Compose helper paths in Starlark (difficulty: easy, area: tests)
#1174: test the generated Axum routes over HTTP (difficulty: medium, area: cli)
The Axum one is the step up. You start a generated Rust service and check its routes over HTTP.
The Refactor Wing: small moves, clear boundaries
#1126: parse Compose load-balancer ports in one helper (difficulty: easy, area: engine)
Find the places that parse the same port data and move them into one helper.
#1128: move migrator Compose generation into a focused module (difficulty: easy, area: engine)
A focused move. Good for seeing how the generator is split.
#821: share the viewport meta and 'Generating HTML template' log across frontend providers
A cleanup across the frontend providers. Each one currently repeats the same two pieces of code.
The Lint Lounge: rules that make CI honest
#815: clear the noTemplateCurlyInString warning and make CI fail on Biome warnings
Right now a warning does not fail CI. This issue asks for both a fix and a stricter rule. It is a good example of how a small config change can tighten a whole repo.
#804: fix noUncheckedIndexedAccess in config, networks, doctor, maintainers and cli
TypeScript's stricter index checks, applied file by file. Each file is a small, self-contained change.
The Last Exhibit: a rule for CI
Before you open a pull request, sign off every commit with git commit -s. Each commit needs a Signed-off-by line under the Developer Certificate of Origin, and the pull request check fails without it. If you forgot, run git rebase --signoff origin/main and push again.
Check lint by its exit code. Run the CI's lint command and read $?. A pipe into tail can hide a failure.
Leaving the Hall
You do not have to visit every wing. Pick one exhibit from the Welcome Desk, one from the Testing Gallery, and one bug from Stories From the Trenches. That covers a documentation change, a test, and a read on a real problem, and it gets you through a full Hacktoberfest week.
Note: this is a contribution guide, not a DEV challenge entry. Current challenge rules require a new project built during the challenge window, and pull requests to existing projects do not count.
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