Mohit Chaprana
1 min readSep 25, 2022

How to get started with open source?

I just found a awesome tweet by YK Sugi , i just wanna publish it so that more and more get benefitted with this.

1. First of all, know your *why*.

Some of the most common reasons for contributing to open source are:

- to learn fast as a software engineer
- to network with other engineers
- to experiment with new tech
- to have proof that you can do the type of work you want to do.

2. Get started.

Get familiar with the mechanics of forking, branching, committing, pushing, and sending a PR (pull request).

You can practice that with this repo: github.com/firstcontribut…

Alternatively, you can do the same with this repo of mine:

3. Find a project to contribute to.

Common ways to find it:

- Check an open-source library or tool you use
- Find people on Twitter and check their projects
- On GitHub, look for *good first issues*
- Find which open source companies are hiring, and contribute to their projects

4. Keep going!

It's ok to start small, for example with a typo fix.

Then, after that, just keep going!

Don't be afraid to ask questions, get involved in communities, or try sending small PRs.

It's important to be consistent - so I recommend the #100DaysOfOpenSource challenge.

5. (Bonus step)

I've created a repo that keeps track of active open source repos you may want to contribute to.

I've been actively managing this list recently and I'm hoping it'll be a helpful resource.

Credits: YK Sugi