Why Contributing to AI Open Source is Your Secret Weapon
If you're a junior developer trying to break into tech in 2025, I'm going to share something that changed my career: contributing to open source AI projects.
Not taking more courses. Not building another todo app. Open source contributions.
Here's the truth that nobody tells you:
🚀 AI is Eating the World (And You Can Be Part of It)
Every company (from startups to Fortune 500s) is racing to integrate AI into their products. But here's the problem: there aren't enough developers who actually understand how to build with LLMs in production.
When you contribute to open source AI projects, you're not just learning theory. You're working with production-grade code that powers real applications. You're understanding how AI systems actually work under the hood. You're building expertise that companies desperately need right now.
💼 Your GitHub Profile Beats Your Resume
I've reviewed hundreds of applications for junior roles. You know what makes candidates stand out?
Not the degree. Not the bootcamp certificate. It's the GitHub profile.
When I see a candidate with merged pull requests to popular AI projects, I know they can:
- Read and understand complex codebases
- Collaborate with teams asynchronously
- Write code that passes real-world code reviews
- Take feedback and iterate
That's exactly what we hire for.
📚 The Best Education is Free
Forget paying $10,000 for bootcamps. The best AI/ML education is happening in public, for free, right now on GitHub.
When you contribute to open source, you get mentorship from senior engineers reviewing your code. You get real-world experience with CI/CD and testing and documentation. You get industry best practices baked into every PR. You get portfolio projects that actually matter.
🌐 Network Effects
Open source is how you meet the people who will change your career.
Maintainers become mentors. Contributors become colleagues. GitHub issues become job referrals.
I've seen it happen countless times. A junior contributor becomes a regular, gets noticed by the maintainers, and gets offered a job (or at least a strong referral).
How to Choose Where to Contribute
Before we dive into the projects, let's talk strategy. Not all open source projects are created equal, especially for beginners.
✅ What to Look For:
1. Active Maintenance
- Recent commits (within the last week)
- Maintainers who respond to issues and PRs
- Regular releases
2. Welcoming Community
- "Good first issue" labels
- Contribution guidelines (
CONTRIBUTING.md) - Code of conduct
- Responsive on Slack/Discord
3. Clear Documentation
- Setup instructions that actually work
- Architecture documentation
- API references
- Example code
4. Your Interests + Skills
- Do you like frontend? Pick projects with TypeScript/React
- Prefer backend? Look for Python/FastAPI projects
- Interested in a specific AI domain? (RAG, agents, evaluation, etc.)
5. Size Sweet Spot
- Avoid: 100k+ star projects (too big, too complex)
- Avoid: <500 star projects (might not be maintained)
- Sweet spot: 3k-30k stars (active, manageable, impactful)
❌ What to Avoid:
- Projects by big tech (Google, Microsoft); often too complex, enterprise-focused
- Projects with no recent activity
- Projects with toxic communities (check how maintainers respond to issues)
- Projects with unclear contribution guidelines
The 8 Best AI Open Source Projects for Beginners
I've personally vetted these projects based on:
- Beginner-friendliness: Clear codebase, good docs, welcoming community
- Learning value: You'll gain practical AI/ML skills
- Career impact: These technologies are in demand
- Diversity: Different categories so you can follow your interests
1. 🎯 Agenta (The Open-Source LLMOps Platform)
What it does: Agenta is a complete platform for building production-grade LLM applications. It provides prompt management, LLM evaluation, and observability. Everything you need to take an LLM app from prototype to production.
Tech Stack:
- Backend: Python, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis
- Frontend: TypeScript, React, Next.js, Ant Design
- DevOps: Docker, Docker Compose
GitHub Stats:
- ⭐ Stars: 3,529
- 🐛 Open Issues: 112
- 👥 Contributors: 52+
Why it's perfect for beginners:
You can contribute to both backend (Python/FastAPI) and frontend (React/TypeScript), depending on your interests. This is full-stack learning.
You'll work on features that companies actually use. Prompt versioning. A/B testing. Evaluation pipelines. Observability dashboards. These are real production features.
The codebase is well-organized with clear separation between services. Great for learning microservices patterns. The team is super responsive to PRs and actively mentors contributors. The community already has 70+ contributors from around the world.
What you'll learn:
- Building full-stack AI applications
- LLM prompt management and versioning
- Evaluation pipelines and metrics
- Observability and tracing patterns
- Working with vector databases
- CI/CD for AI applications
Contribution Opportunities:
- 🎨 UI/UX improvements: Make the playground more intuitive
- 🧪 Add new evaluators: Implement evaluation metrics (toxicity, bias, etc.)
- 📚 Documentation: Improve setup guides, add tutorials
- 🔌 LLM integrations: Add support for new providers (Anthropic, Mistral, etc.)
- ✅ Testing: Improve test coverage
- 📊 Observability features: Enhance tracing and monitoring
Getting Started:
- Read the Contributing Guide
- Check out good first issues
- Join the Slack community
Repository: github.com/Agenta-AI/agenta
👋 Full disclosure: I'm one of the maintainers of Agenta, and I'm actively looking for contributors! We have a welcoming community and love mentoring junior developers. If you're interested in LLMOps, this is a great place to start.
2. 🌐 LiteLLM (Universal LLM API Gateway)
What it does: LiteLLM is like a universal adapter for LLMs. It lets you call 100+ LLM APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Mistral, etc.) using the same OpenAI-compatible format. Plus, it includes cost tracking, load balancing, and fallbacks.
Tech Stack:
- Language: Python
- Core: Async Python, Pydantic
- Proxy: FastAPI
GitHub Stats:
- ⭐ Stars: 32,548
- 🐛 Open Issues: 1,346
- 👥 Active community
Why it's perfect for beginners:
The library solves one problem really well: LLM API abstraction. This makes the codebase easy to understand. Adding support for a new LLM provider follows a clear, repeatable pattern.
You'll understand how different LLM APIs work and how to build resilient API clients. The documentation has clear examples for every use case.
What you'll learn:
- Working with async Python
- API design and abstraction patterns
- Error handling and retry logic
- Cost tracking and analytics
- Load balancing strategies
Contribution Opportunities:
- ➕ Add new LLM providers: Support for new models/APIs
- 🔧 Improve error handling: Better error messages and retry logic
- 📊 Enhance cost tracking: More accurate token counting
- 📚 Documentation: Examples for specific use cases
- ✅ Tests: Coverage for edge cases
Repository: github.com/BerriAI/litellm
3. 🤖 Pydantic AI (Agent Framework, The Pydantic Way)
What it does: Pydantic AI is an agent framework built by the creators of Pydantic (the most popular Python validation library). It brings type safety and validation to LLM agents, making them more reliable and easier to debug.
Tech Stack:
- Language: Python 3.10+
- Core: Pydantic V2
- Integrations: OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Ollama, and more
GitHub Stats:
- ⭐ Stars: 13,816
- 🐛 Open Issues: 398
- 👥 Built by the Pydantic team
Why it's perfect for beginners:
The Pydantic team is known for excellent code quality and documentation. If you know Python type hints and Pydantic, you can contribute. You'll learn how to build reliable AI agents with proper validation. It's a new project with lots of opportunities to contribute.
What you'll learn:
- Building AI agents with proper validation
- Pydantic advanced patterns
- Type-safe LLM interactions
- Streaming structured outputs
- Tool calling and function execution
Contribution Opportunities:
- 📝 Examples and tutorials: Show different agent patterns
- 🔌 LLM provider integrations: Add new model support
- 🧪 Validation patterns: Improve retry/validation logic
- 📚 Documentation: Expand guides and API docs
- ✅ Tests: Edge case coverage
Repository: github.com/pydantic/pydantic-ai
4. 📊 RAGAS (RAG Evaluation Framework)
What it does: RAGAS (Retrieval Augmented Generation Assessment) is a framework specifically designed for evaluating RAG pipelines. It provides metrics like Faithfulness, Context Relevancy, Answer Relevancy, and more.
Tech Stack:
- Language: Python
- Integrations: LangChain, LlamaIndex, OpenAI, Anthropic
- Core: NumPy, Pandas
GitHub Stats:
- ⭐ Stars: 11,772
- 🐛 Open Issues: 284
- 👥 Growing community
Why it's perfect for beginners:
RAGAS specializes in RAG evaluation, making it easier to understand than general-purpose frameworks. Each evaluation metric is well-defined and isolated. This makes contributions straightforward.
RAG is everywhere, and evaluating it is critical. You're solving a real problem. The documentation clearly explains what each metric measures.
What you'll learn:
- RAG architecture and patterns
- Evaluation metrics and methodologies
- Working with embeddings and vector similarity
- LLM-as-a-judge patterns
- Statistical analysis for AI systems
Contribution Opportunities:
- 📏 New evaluation metrics: Implement new ways to measure RAG quality
- 🔧 Improve existing metrics: Make them more accurate/efficient
- 📊 Visualization: Better reporting and dashboards
- 📚 Documentation: More examples and guides
- ✅ Tests: Validate metrics work correctly
Repository: github.com/explodinggradients/ragas
5. 🎯 Instructor (Structured Outputs from LLMs)
What it does: Instructor is the most popular Python library for getting structured outputs from LLMs. It uses Pydantic to validate and parse LLM responses, with automatic retries when validation fails.
Tech Stack:
- Language: Python, TypeScript
- Core: Pydantic, OpenAI SDK
- Supports: 15+ LLM providers
GitHub Stats:
- ⭐ Stars: 11,995
- 📥 Downloads: 1M+ monthly
- 🐛 Open Issues: 85
Why it's perfect for beginners:
Instructor does one thing exceptionally well: structured LLM outputs. If you know Pydantic, you can contribute. The documentation has tons of examples for every use case.
Millions of developers use this library. Your contributions matter.
What you'll learn:
- Pydantic validation patterns
- LLM function calling and tool use
- Retry logic and error handling
- Working with multiple LLM providers
- Type-safe API design
Contribution Opportunities:
- 📝 Examples and recipes: Show how to solve specific problems
- 🔌 Provider support: Add/improve LLM provider integrations
- 🔧 Better error messages: Help users debug validation issues
- 📚 Documentation: Tutorials and guides
- ✅ Tests: Coverage for different providers
Repository: github.com/instructor-ai/instructor
6. 🧪 DSPy (Programming, Not Prompting, LLMs)
What it does: DSPy (from Stanford NLP) shifts the paradigm from manual prompt engineering to programming with structured modules. It includes algorithms to automatically optimize prompts based on your data and metrics.
Tech Stack:
- Language: Python
- Core: PyTorch-style modular design
- Research: Stanford NLP
GitHub Stats:
- ⭐ Stars: 30,825
- 🐛 Open Issues: 404
- 🎓 Stanford research project
Why it's perfect for beginners:
You'll learn a completely different way of working with LLMs. You'll stand out. The code is clean and well-documented (research quality from Stanford researchers). You'll understand how to systematically improve prompts instead of guessing.
This is an academic project with community governance (not enterprise-controlled).
What you'll learn:
- Prompt optimization algorithms
- Modular LLM programming
- Evaluation-driven development
- Bayesian optimization
- Meta-learning concepts
Contribution Opportunities:
- 🧮 New optimizers: Implement optimization algorithms
- 📝 Examples: Show DSPy patterns for different use cases
- 📊 Metrics: Add new evaluation metrics
- 📚 Documentation: Tutorials and guides
- 🐛 Bug fixes: Improve stability
Repository: github.com/stanfordnlp/dspy
7. ✅ DeepEval ("Pytest for LLMs")
What it does: DeepEval is an evaluation framework that works like pytest. Write tests for your LLM applications and run them in CI/CD. It includes 14+ metrics for RAG, fine-tuning, hallucination detection, and more.
Tech Stack:
- Language: Python 3.9+
- Core: Pydantic, pytest patterns
- Integrations: OpenAI, Anthropic, Cohere
GitHub Stats:
- ⭐ Stars: 12,632
- 🐛 Open Issues: 226
- 👥 Growing community
Why it's perfect for beginners:
If you know pytest, you'll understand DeepEval immediately. Each metric is isolated and well-defined. Every LLM app needs evaluation (you're solving a universal problem).
The metrics tell you why the score is what it is. This makes debugging easier.
What you'll learn:
- LLM evaluation methodologies
- Writing test frameworks
- Metrics design and implementation
- CI/CD for AI applications
- LLM-as-a-judge patterns
Contribution Opportunities:
- 📏 New evaluation metrics: Implement metrics for specific use cases
- 🔧 Improve existing metrics: Make them more accurate
- 📊 Better reporting: Improve test output and visualization
- 📚 Documentation: Guides and examples
- ✅ Tests: Meta-tests for the testing framework!
Repository: github.com/confident-ai/deepeval
8. 🛡️ Guardrails AI (Reliable AI Applications)
What it does: Guardrails AI helps you build reliable AI applications by validating inputs and outputs. It includes a hub of pre-built validators (toxicity, PII detection, factual consistency, etc.) that you can combine into "guards."
Tech Stack:
- Language: Python, JavaScript
- Core: Pydantic validation
- Hub: 50+ pre-built validators
GitHub Stats:
- ⭐ Stars: 6,155
- 🐛 Open Issues: 18
- 🔐 Focus: AI safety and reliability
Why it's perfect for beginners:
AI safety is critical and getting more attention. Each validator is isolated, making it easy to contribute new ones. The use cases are practical: PII detection, toxicity checking, hallucination detection. You can contribute to Python or JavaScript.
What you'll learn:
- AI safety and validation patterns
- Input/output filtering
- PII detection algorithms
- Toxicity classification
- Building validation pipelines
Contribution Opportunities:
- 🛡️ New validators: Add validators for specific risks
- 🔧 Improve existing validators: Better accuracy/performance
- 🔌 Integrations: Support for new LLM providers
- 📚 Documentation: Security best practices
- ✅ Tests: Validate the validators!
Repository: github.com/guardrails-ai/guardrails
Get Started Today
Pick one project from this list. Star it on GitHub. Read the README. Join their community.
Then make your first contribution this week.
The best time to start was yesterday. The second-best time is now.
About the Author
I'm a maintainer of Agenta, an open-source LLMOps platform with 70+ contributors from around the world. I've seen firsthand how open source contributions can transform careers. Many of our contributors have gone on to land ML engineer roles at top companies.
If you're interested in contributing to Agenta or have questions about getting started with open source, feel free to reach out on our Slack community. We love mentoring junior developers!
Resources
- First Timers Only; Find beginner-friendly issues
- How to Contribute to Open Source
- GitHub Skills; Learn Git and GitHub
Found this helpful? Drop a ❤️ and share it with other developers looking to break into AI!
Have questions or success stories? Drop them in the comments below! 👇
Sources & Further Reading
- Top 10 open source LLMs for 2025
- 40 LLM Projects to Upgrade Your AI Skillset in 2025
- Best Open-Source AI Platforms for 2025
- Top Open Source Machine Learning Projects
- GitHub - Agenta
- GitHub - LiteLLM
- GitHub - Pydantic AI
- GitHub - RAGAS
- GitHub - Instructor
- GitHub - DSPy
- GitHub - DeepEval
- GitHub - Guardrails AI
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