10 Essential Open Source Projects for Beginners to Contribute to in 2024

try { if(localStorage) { let currentUser = localStorage.getItem('current_user'); if (currentUser) { currentUser = JSON.parse(currentUser); if (currentUser.id === 3897836) { document.getElementById('article-show-container').classList.add('current-user-is-article-author'); } } } } catch (e) { console.error(e); } Orbit Websites Posted on Apr 28 10 Essential Open Source Projects for Beginners to Contribute to in 2024 #opensource #beginners #programming #github 10 Essential Open Source Projects for Beginners to Contribute to in 2024 Getting into open source can feel like showing up to a party where everyone already knows each other. You want to help, but where do you even start? Contributing to real projects builds your skills, grows your network, and makes your GitHub profile actually matter. In 2024, the barrier to entry is lower than ever — if you know where to look. Here are 10 beginner-friendly open source projects that welcome new contributors, have active maintainers, and offer real impact without requiring a PhD in distributed systems. 1. first-contributions / first-contributions GitHub: https://github.com/first-contributions/first-contributions This isn’t a “real” project in the traditional sense — it’s a tutorial disguised as a repo. But it’s essential. It walks you through forking, cloning, creating a branch, making a change, and opening a pull request. All with zero risk. git clone https://github.com/your-username/first-contributions.git cd first-contributions git checkout -b add-your-name # Edit the README.md file, add your name git add . git commit -m "Add <your-name> to Contributors list" git push origin add-your-name Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode Then open a PR. That’s it. This repo has helped over 500k people make their first contribution. Start here if you’re nervous. 2. freeCodeCamp / freeCodeCamp GitHub: https://github.com/freeCodeCamp/freeCodeCamp freeCodeCamp’s codebase is massive, but they label issues clearly with first-timers-only, help-wanted, and good first issue. Most beginner work happens in their /curriculum or /client folders — updating lessons, fixing typos, improving UI components. Example fix (in a lesson markdown file): <!-- Before --> Use const to declare variables. <!-- After --> Use `const` to declare variables that won't be reassigned. Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode They use GitHub Discussions and a large Discord community. If you’re learning web dev, this is a no-brainer. 3. Public Lab / publiclab.org GitHub: https://github.com/publiclab/publiclab.org Public Lab builds open tools for environmental justice. Their codebase is mostly Ruby on Rails and JavaScript, but they welcome docs, design, and outreach help too. They use a tag: status:help-wanted and first-timers-only. One common task: improving documentation in .md files. # After forking and cloning cd publiclab.org # Edit a file like /wiki/using-git.md git add . git commit -m "Fix broken link in Git guide" git push Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode They respond quickly and value clarity over code complexity. 4. Mifi Labs / simple-icons GitHub: https://github.com/simple-icons/simple-icons Need an icon for “Notion” or “Linear”? This project provides SVG icons for popular brands. Adding a new icon is well-documented and involves: Finding the brand’s official logo (SVG preferred) Optimizing it with their script Submitting a PR // In your terminal npm run add -- --icon="MyBrand" --source="path/to/logo.svg"…

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