Open source — start small, ship often

Common myth: I need to fix a bug to contribute.

Reality, what counts:
- Doc fixes (typos, missing examples, broken links)
- Test coverage for an edge case
- A repro for an open issue
- Reviewing someone else's PR helpfully
- Triaging issues (label, ask for repro)

Maintainers love these. Each gets you a 'merged-in-X' badge. Stack a few; you're now a known contributor. Then escalate to bug fixes, features.

Some repos are graveyards. Stars, no merges, dead PRs.

Before you contribute, check:
- Last commit < 30 days
- Recent PRs merged within a week
- Maintainer responds to issues
- 'good first issue' label populated

Great AI/ML repos for first contributions in 2026: huggingface/transformers, langchain-ai/langchain, vllm-project/vllm, qdrant/qdrant, encode/httpx. All actively maintained, all welcome new contributors.

git workflow that respects upstream. fork, branch, fix, PR. Maintainers love clean diffs.

Key: rebase, don't merge. Squash if asked. Always reference the issue you're closing.

Bad PR: 'fix bug'

Good PR:
- 1-line summary
- Why this change is needed (link to issue / user report)
- What you changed (bullet list)
- How to test (commands or screenshots)
- Any risks / trade-offs

Maintainers read PR descriptions before code. A great description gets your PR reviewed faster, merged sooner.

Day 86 done.

- First PR doesn't have to be code
- Pick living repos
- Clean fork → branch → PR workflow
- PR descriptions like a story

Tomorrow (Day 87): the resume + LinkedIn page that gets the interview.