🔒 First open source contribution - Python project recommendations?

[opaque geode]

Hi everyone!

I'm Javier, a Systems Engineering student looking to make my first contribution to an open source Python project.

My background:

• Comfortable with Python basics (data structures, OOP, functions)
• Interested in data analysis and backend development
• Familiar with Git basics but new to collaborative workflows

What I'm looking for:

• Beginner-friendly projects with good documentation
• Active maintainers who are welcoming to first-time contributors
• Issues labeled as "good first issue" or "beginner-friendly"

I want to gain real-world experience and learn best practices from the open source community.

Any recommendations or advice on how to get started would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

[grizzled skiff]

@opaque geode

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[tepid wind]

People generally don't actively look out to contribute to open source, except in your case you want to dip your toes into getting better understanding of how it works.

You can start off with projects or libraries that you commonly use while programming, then understand how the internals of the library / project works. Only if you feel like there is something lacking in the project like some bugs, documentation error, or you wanna add a new feature to it, make a PR to it.

To make a PR you need to fork the project, create a new branch and put an appropriate name (the name usually prefixes with feature/ or bugfix/ or any similar topic. Then you submit a PR asking to merge your forked branch to the main version

I'd recommend you to make a repo on your own account and learn about branching, merging, PRs and issues so you understand how they work

[elder girder]

You can also contribute to this server's bots! Lancebot is made specifically as more fun bot for people to try to add/modify stuff.

Check #dev-contrib and the git org (shortcut for it is http://git.pydis.com/)

There are some open issues if you want ideas, some are already assigned https://github.com/python-discord/sir-lancebot/issues

[opaque geode]

Thanks for the detailed advice!

That's a great approach - contributing to libraries I already use makes a lot more sense than randomly picking projects. I'll start by exploring the codebases of tools I work with regularly.

Your suggestion about practicing with my own repo first is really smart. I'll create a test repository to get comfortable with branching, PRs, and merge workflows before jumping into real contributions.

I appreciate you breaking down the PR naming conventions too (feature/, bugfix/). That's exactly the kind of workflow detail I needed to know!

Thanks again for taking the time to help!

[opaque geode]

Thanks for the recommendation!

Contributing to this server's bots sounds like a perfect way to start - especially since I'm already part of this community. I'll check out Lancebot and the dev-contrib channel.

Having open issues with context will definitely make it easier to understand what needs to be done as a first-timer.

I'll take a look at the GitHub org and see where I can start. Really appreciate the direct resource

[grizzled skiff]

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