Ask HN: What Open Source Projects Need Help?

1. CodeTriage

   1 86 1,413 7.4 Ruby

   Discover the best way to get started contributing to Open Source projects

   

   * https://www.codetriage.com/ (mentioned in these comments)

   I seem to recall yet another one, maybe with a name that invoked a traveling group of helpers who would jump into projects briefly to fix them up?

   On a related note, it would be cool if there was a way to leave a hobo sign equivalent if you find a project that is well-run and easy to contribute to. If the build and tests Just Work, etc., we should praise that project in a way that

2. SaaSHub

   www.saashub.com featured

   SaaSHub - Software Alternatives and Reviews. SaaSHub helps you find the best software and product alternatives

   

3. vis

   2 60 4,297 7.9 C

   A vi-like editor based on Plan 9's structural regular expressions (by martanne)

   

   My favorite and daily driver text editor, vis (https://github.com/martanne/vis)

4. freecivx

   3 2 15 9.6 C

   FreecivX.net - Freeciv in 3D!

   

5. openpdfsaucer

   4 2 14 9.1 Java

   OpenPDFSaucer is a free Java library for creating, editing and rendering PDF files, with a LGPL open source license. XML/XHTML and CSS 2.1 renderer in pure Java. Render PDF documents as images. OpenPDFSaucer is a combined fork of OpenPDF, FlyingSaucer and PDFrenderer.

   

   https://github.com/openpdfsaucer/openpdfsaucer

   I focus on maintaining these two open source projects. Pull request welcome!

6. Job-scout

   5 5 25 7.4 Python

   Job-Scout is completely open-source, and we'd love your help! Right now, it fetches jobs from Twitter (X) and Hacker News, but with your contributions, we can expand it to cover more job sites. Whether you’re passionate about coding, improving job-hunting tools, or adding new job sources, your contributions are welcome

   

   Job-Scout is an open-source CLI tool that aggregates remote Machine Learning, AI, and Data Science job listings from Twitter and Hacker News. It analyzes your resume to match and rank jobs based on your skills and experience, providing you with personalized job recommendations. The project is highly customizable—users can easily tweak the search to find internships or specific roles. Contributors are welcome to join and enhance this project by adding new job sources, features, and improvements!

   https://github.com/ShreeshaBhat1004/Job-scout

   If you like it, Give it a star

   DM me if you wanna contribute

7. npsnav

   6 2 9 9.7 Python

   National Pension Scheme (NPS) Fund Tracker with easy-to-use API for latest NAV.

   

   Npsnav.in

   A simple project I started to track pension funds in India while I started learning programming.

   Tech Stack: Python, Vanilla HTML/CSS/Js, Cloudflare D1 db

   Help Needed: Deploying workers and building a custom query builder within the constraints of Cloudflare Free Tier.

   Link: https://github.com/rishikeshsreehari/npsnav

8. puter

   7 11 27,533 10.0 JavaScript

   🌐 The Internet OS! Free, Open-Source, and Self-Hostable.

   

   https://github.com/HeyPuter/puter

   We're building a "Web OS" designed to be feature-rich, exceptionally fast, and highly extensible! It can be used for anything from a Dropbox alternative to a cloud environment for building websites and apps!

   Stack: JavaScrips. No frameworks.

9. code

   8 34 - -

   KiCad EDA - https://kicad.org

   KiCad is a popular open-source EDA tool used by engineers and designers across the globe. We're always open to contributions from experienced C++ developers, especially those who are also familiar with the world of electrical engineering / PCB design. Check out our developer landing page[1] to find the developers email list and contribution guides. We accept merge requests on GitLab[2] and try to keep a number of lower-scope issues tagged starter [3] for new developers to take on.

   We're currently in our annual feature freeze as we focus on stabilizing features added in the past year and squashing bugs ahead of our planned 9.0 release at the end of January. Any help testing the nightly builds and surfacing bugs to fix is appreciated as well as actual bug-fixing!

   [1] https://dev-docs.kicad.org/en/getting-started/index.html

   [2] https://gitlab.com/kicad

   [3] https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/issues/?label_name[]=s...

10. console

    9 17 518 9.2 TypeScript

    Application secrets and configuration management for developers. (by phasehq)

    

11. cli

    10 1 10 7.4 Python

    Securely manage and sync environment variables with Phase. (by phasehq)

    

12. docs

    11 1 3 9.5 MDX

    Official docs for phase.dev (by phasehq)

    

13. python-sdk

    12 1 4 8.1 Python

    Python SDK for Phase (by phasehq)

    

14. golang-sdk

    13 1 4 7.6 Go

    Golang SDK for Phase (by phasehq)

    

15. kubernetes-secrets-operator

    14 1 5 8.7 Python

    Securely sync secrets and environment variables with Phase in your Kubernetes cluster

    

16. terraform-provider-phase

    15 1 3 6.6 Go

    

17. smoothmq

    16 7 2,159 8.5 Go

    An improved drop-in replacement for SQS

    SmoothMQ: a drop-in replacement for SQS. https://github.com/poundifdef/smoothmq

    I am looking to build 4 main things:

    1. Better compatibility with SQS' different endpoints

18. llvm-project-deluge

    17 17 525 0.0 C++

    Fil-C

    Fil-C - a memory safe implementation of C and C++.

    Written in C and C++.

    Need most help just porting C programs to Fil-C. Often porting is as easy as recompiling, but sometimes there are compatibility issues to resolve similar to if you were porting C code to a new CPU or OS. Could also use help with compiler hacking (llvm expertise required) and runtime hacking (experience with high level language runtimes required).

    https://github.com/pizlonator/llvm-project-deluge

19. enigo

    18 5 1,132 8.8 Rust

    Cross platform input simulation in Rust

    

    - RustDesk: Remote Access and Support Software (forked enigo) [3]

    I'm close to running integration tests in the CI to prevent regressions and find platform differences, but it's not fully working yet. If someone could get it over the finish line, that would be great.

    For Linux there is X11 but also basic Wayland implementation and a libei one, but they only work properly for US keyboards.

    [1] https://github.com/enigo-rs/enigo

20. rustdesk

    19 494 79,368 9.9 Rust

    An open-source remote desktop application designed for self-hosting, as an alternative to TeamViewer.

    

21. plock

    20 6 479 8.6 Rust

    From anywhere you can type, query and stream the output of an LLM or any other script

22. plainoldrecipe

    21 3 329 6.1 Python

    Takes a recipe website URL and transforms it to a plain-text version for reading or printing.

    

    https://github.com/poundifdef/plainoldrecipe

    Things I want to do:

    1. Improved print-friendly format

23. IfcOpenShell

    22 6 1,916 10.0 C++

    Open source IFC library and geometry engine

    

    IfcOpenShell - https://ifcopenshell.org - https://github.com/IfcOpenShell/IfcOpenShell

    An open-source toolkit for developing digital platforms in the built environment. With IfcOpenShell, you can read, write, and modify Building Information Models (BIM) using the IFC standard — a versatile and open digital language spanning the entire lifecycle of buildings, from design to construction and beyond.

    Now including Bonsai, a Blender-based 3D editor to create and edit multidisciplinary information within IFC models.

    The built environment is a major contributor to emissions, making sustainability in design, construction, and operations an area we can work on with data-driven decisions unlocked by open source tools.

    CAD/BIM has long faced lock-in by the proprietary nature of traditional tools. We aim to change that.

    C++ / Python / 3D / Computational geometry / CAD / BIM

24. PropertyWebBuilder

    23 21 550 0.0 Ruby

    Create a fully featured real estate website on Rails in minutes! ⛺

    

    I'd love to resurrect my open source real estate website builder:

    https://github.com/etewiah/property_web_builder

    I was quite active with updating it a few years ago but haven't had the time to work on it recently.

    On another project of mine I have been using aider and co-pilot and realised I could bring property_web_builder back to life with these tools. It would motivate me massively to do this if at least one or two other people were willing to work with me on this.

25. icosa-gallery

    24 1 12 9.9 JavaScript

    Icosa Gallery is a 3D model hosting solution, intended as a replacement for Google's Poly

    

    Icosa Gallery - https://github.com/icosa-foundation/icosa-gallery

    A Google Poly replacement with ambitions beyond that. 3D model hosting, viewing, sharing with simple self-hosting and (eventually) federation. An API that's 99% compatible with the Google Poly API means it's easy to revive integrations that used to support Poly. We're also got a dataset that we've cleaned up from Internet Archive scrapes restoring nearly all of the original collection. (about 150,000 models)

    Looking for help with the three.js viewer/editor, help with fediverse support, Django database or OAuth experts. And of course documentation, testing, design, ux and everything else.

    And anyone with their own project that would benefit from integrating with us.

    Stack: Vanilla javascript / HTMX, Django, Postgres, three.js and GLTF

    Suitable for any skill levels.

    [email protected]

    https://icosa.gallery/ (currently in private alpha)

26. CubeTrek

    25 8 294 7.2 HTML

    Home for all your GPS Tracks: Visualize, share and manage your GPS tracks.

    https://github.com/r-follador/CubeTrek/

    Java, Spring Boot, PostGis, JavaScript, Babylon.js

    Front end could use some help in design overhaul, new feature ideas etc. Also looking for some 3D designers helping to improve the Babylon.js parts. Other, new ideas and features are welcome!

27. rwf

    26 6 1,013 9.8 Rust

    Comprehensive framework for building web applications in Rust.

    Come build the next full stack web framework for your favorite programming language!

    https://github.com/levkk/rwf

28. TypeScript-Website

    27 55 2,264 9.2 TypeScript

    The Website and web infrastructure for learning TypeScript

    

    To be honest, I think it is true. They declared "issue bankruptcy" in one of they repo:

    https://github.com/microsoft/TypeScript-Website/issues/2804

    Contrary to many people's perception, Microsoft is one of the biggest contributors to open source, whether for projects they "own" like TypeScript or VSCode, or other common projects like Linux. The amount of users and bugs/feature requests etc don't match headcounts available at Microsoft.

29. neverball

    28 3 359 9.0 C

    Tilt the floor to roll a ball through an obstacle course before time runs out.

    

    I maintain Neverball, a 3D rolling ball game. It's a spare time project for me. Written in C, ported to the web via WASM and handwritten HTML/CSS/JS (https://play.neverball.org). Been polishing the web app for a while, but looking for critiques that might help me pinpoint where the web app falls short of expectation. Contacts: https://github.com/Neverball/neverball/discussions or HN.

30. TheOpenPresenter

    29 4 12 9.8 TypeScript

    TheOpenPresenter is an ambitious project aiming to be the final presenter software you'll ever need

    TheOpenPresenter - https://github.com/Vija02/TheOpenPresenter

    A presentation software useful for Event Presenting, Digital Signage, Dashboards and more. Basically if you ever need to control a screen, we want to make that process easy. The core system handles all the boring detail like real time communication and media handling. Meanwhile, you can install plugins to handle specific things like playing video, displaying powerpoint, dashboards, etc.

    Tech stack: Typescript, Node.js, React, PostgreSQL.

31. emrtd

    30 1 6 6.2 Rust

    Rust eMRTD

    

    emrtd. A Rust crate used to communicate with compliant e-passports and identity documents. It can be used for building automated systems or the like. Rust is used.

    Help is needed with code and design, also the Rust crypto ecosystem as many algorithms needed to implement these security mechanisms such as brainpool are missing from Rust Crypto project.

    Level: Beginner friendly after getting familiar with the ICAO Doc 9303 Series or reading my blog post about the ecosystem (https://blog.burakcankus.com/2024/04/18/how-do-electronic-pa...)

    Contact through contact@emrtd.com

    https://github.com/Fethbita/emrtd

32. up-for-grabs.net

    31 72 5,538 9.7 JavaScript

    This is a list of projects which have curated tasks specifically for new contributors. These issues are a great way to get started with a project, or to help share the load of working on open source projects. Jump in!

    

33. go-size-analyzer

    32 6 1,384 9.9 Go

    A tool for analyzing the size of compiled Go binaries, offering cross-platform support, detailed breakdowns, and multiple output formats.

    go-size-analyzer, a tool for analysing different dependency volumes in go binaries.

    Specifically, I'm looking for help from some people who have experience with reversing on the Mac OS platform, and I'd like to address this issue, which is about how binary relocations handle memory addresses on Mac OS.

    https://github.com/Zxilly/go-size-analyzer/issues/242

    gsa obtains the memory address by calculating the address expression in the dwarf, and subsequently looks for the static content in the binary that actually corresponds to the memory address, but when the macho file contains relocations, the calculated memory address needs to be relocated with the same logic to get the correct binary content. I've been working on this problem for a while, but I'm really not familiar with the macho structure and I don't own a macbook, I'd like to get help from developers who have experience in this area.

34. assertables-rust-crate

    33 11 76 9.2 Rust

    Assertables: a Rust crate of assert macros for testing

    

    Assertables: Rust crate of assert macros for better testing and runtime vetting.

    https://github.com/sixarm/assertables-rust-crate/

    BEGINNER-FRIENDLY for documentation help such as creating examples, outreach help such as connecting with developers.

    INTERMEDIATE-FRIENDLY adding capabilities for no_std, and for values without debug, and for env var configuration, etc.

35. gitalias

    34 11 2,483 5.0 Shell

    Git alias commands for faster easier version control

    

    GitAlias - https://github.com/GitAlias/gitalias/

    GitAlias is a big list of git alias commands that aims to help developers by providing shortcuts, patterns, workflows, etc.

    We're always looking for better ways to use git. This includes coming up with new aliases, and also improving existing aliases by adding parameters, and writing better docs.

36. prql

    35 121 10,045 9.7 Rust

    PRQL is a modern language for transforming data — a simple, powerful, pipelined SQL replacement

    

    https://github.com/PRQL/prql

    PRQL - the Pipelined Relational Query Language, pronounced "Prequel".

    PRQL is a modern language for transforming data — a simple, powerful, pipelined SQL replacement. Like SQL, it's readable, explicit and declarative. Unlike SQL, it forms a logical pipeline of transformations, and supports abstractions such as variables and functions. It can be used with any database that uses SQL, since it compiles to SQL.

    Lots of ideas for making PRQL the best language for working with and transforming data in any environment. As a completely community driven project with no corporate association or sponsor, velocity is limited by volunteer availability and contributions so help is welcome. From compiler work in Rust, to front-end improvements on the website, and CLIs, language integrations, alternative backends, etc ... in between.

37. CorsixTH

    36 27 4,098 9.3 Lua

    Open source clone of Theme Hospital

    

    CorsixTH - https://github.com/CorsixTH/CorsixTH

    A modern platform's clone of the 1997 Bullfrog game Theme Hospital, where you manage a series of hospitals. CorsixTH is mostly feature complete, with additions like player made maps and levels, and some ease of use changes. We have some issues marked Good First Issue, and long term plans including multiplayer. The documentation and wiki are good, and there's a Matrix/Discord room. Also an Android port - https://github.com/alanwoolley/CorsixTH-Android

38. CorsixTH-Android

    37 2 99 3.1 C

    Port of CorsixTH to Android

    CorsixTH - https://github.com/CorsixTH/CorsixTH

    A modern platform's clone of the 1997 Bullfrog game Theme Hospital, where you manage a series of hospitals. CorsixTH is mostly feature complete, with additions like player made maps and levels, and some ease of use changes. We have some issues marked Good First Issue, and long term plans including multiplayer. The documentation and wiki are good, and there's a Matrix/Discord room. Also an Android port - https://github.com/alanwoolley/CorsixTH-Android

39. ml-mdm

    38 3 467 8.8 Python

    Train high-quality text-to-image diffusion models in a data & compute efficient manner

    

    https://github.com/apple/ml-mdm

    Any help with DOCS or CODE would be greatly appreciated. I’m happy to have BEGINNER-FRIENDLY contributions as well, there’s a “good first issues” label that we use on GitHub.

    We have an active and growing group of external contributors and welcome newcomers.

    Could be a fun opportunity to contribute to a machine learning research project and to learn about cutting edge techniques in this subfield.

40. langroid

    39 20 2,912 9.8 Python

    Harness LLMs with Multi-Agent Programming

    

    Langroid: https://github.com/langroid/langroid

    Langroid (2.7k stars, 20k downloads/mo) is an intuitive, lightweight, extensible and principled Python framework to easily build agent-oriented LLM-powered applications, from CMU and UW-Madison researchers. You set up Agents, equip them with optional components (LLM,

41. server

    40 1 0 4.6 Python

    Fast, Reliable and Secure backend for DoShare Personal Cloud Clients (by doshareme)

    

    If you're interested in a python project, take a look at https://github.com/doshareme/server . Join us on Discord https://dub.sh/doshare-discord

42. jektex

    41 6 31 4.9 Ruby

    A Jekyll plugin for fast server-side cached LaTeX rendering, with support for macros. Enjoy the comfort of LaTeX and Markdown without cluttering your site with bloated JavaScript.

    

    JekTeX - A Jekyll plugin for fast server-side cached LaTeX rendering, with support for macros. ( https://github.com/yagarea/jektex )

    I would like to split it to the multiple files and make some unit tests. + I have two issues that should be easy to fix but I have no time to try to solve them because my uni takes more time than I would like.

43. hn-search

    42 1,893 547 2.9 TypeScript

    Hacker News Search

    

44. Ray

    43 47 34,925 10.0 Python

    Ray is an AI compute engine. Ray consists of a core distributed runtime and a set of AI Libraries for accelerating ML workloads.

    

    I'm guessing this comment is some kind of "if you know, you know." Likely starting from https://docs.ray.io/en/latest/cluster/vms/user-guides/launch... and then trawling through one of these I guess https://github.com/ray-project/ray/issues?q=is%3Aissue+prem+...

45. pavex

    44 4 1,813 9.6 Rust

    An easy-to-use Rust framework for building robust and performant APIs

    

    You say beginner friendly. How does rwf look like compared to Pavex[1] in this regard?

    [1] https://github.com/LukeMathWalker/pavex

46. Back In Time

    45 43 2,210 9.3 Python

    A comfortable and well-configurable graphical frontend for incremental backups using rsync, with a command-line version also available. Modified files are transferred, while unchanged files are linked to the new folder using rsync's hard link feature, saving storage space. Restoring is straightforward via file manager or command line.

    

    look at [Good First Issues](https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/labels/GOOD%20FIRST%2...)

Suggest a related project