The first contribution often gets stuck before the first line of code
You find an open-source issue that sounds interesting. Then come the practical questions:
- What is this issue really asking?
- Where should I start looking?
- What should I test?
- What should I ask the maintainer before changing anything?
OpenForge is a small tool for that uncertain first step. It turns a public GitHub issue into a beginner-friendly contribution plan: a plain-language explanation, places to investigate, test ideas, and questions to clarify with the maintainer.
Try the preview: OpenForge demo
Read the code and setup instructions: OpenForge on GitHub
The live page is an interactive sample preview. It shows an illustrative plan and does not call an AI API. To run the full app, use Node.js 18+, add a Gemini API key to the server environment, and follow the README. The app fetches the public issue, up to six recent comments, and the repository README, then sends those excerpts to Gemma 4 through the Gemini API.
Why Gemma 4, and why open source?
OpenForge uses the open-weight Gemma 4 model (gemma-4-26b-a4b-it) for its core contribution-plan generation. The project is MIT-licensed, so contributors and communities can inspect, adapt, and run the code themselves. The model call uses Google's Gemini API; this version does not run inference locally.
That distinction matters: an open-weight model can make a focused tool adaptable, while an API makes it easier to try without asking every new contributor to set up model-serving infrastructure. The API key stays on the server. The issue text, selected comments, and README excerpts are sent to Google's API for analysis, so don't use private repository content.
The model's file suggestions are hypotheses to investigate, not promises that a particular file needs changing. OpenForge does not write code, create branches, or open pull requests. A contributor remains responsible for checking the repository's guidance, validating suggestions, running tests, and talking with maintainers.
Who might use it?
The first audience is a newcomer trying to make a first contribution, or a community program helping people get started with public repositories. Maintainers may also find it useful as an onboarding aid.
We have not validated a paying customer or added paid features. A future hosted version could be useful to contributor programs that want a guided first-issue workflow, but that is an idea to test with real users—not something this prototype currently sells.
What I learned
The hard part of a first contribution is often not typing code; it is figuring out a safe, small next step. OpenForge tries to make that step clearer while leaving the actual engineering decisions with the contributor and maintainers.
A practical first contribution still starts with reading the README and contribution guide, checking the surrounding code, and understanding the tests. Mariam Amin's practical guide to a first open-source contribution makes that workflow concrete. Agendamento Florescer's small CLI for less intimidating contributions explores a similar idea: a focused brief can help turn an issue into an actionable plan.
If you try the preview, tell us what would make the first step more useful. We especially want to learn whether the plan helps you decide what to inspect, what to test, or what to ask a maintainer.
Built for Hacktoberfest Hack Day Noida x HackQube.
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