Open Source Made Easy: A Step-by-Step Guide to Contributing to Your First Project

Just recently I made my first open-source contribution to a project and it's not as scary or advanced as many taught including me too

So I decided why not make an article about it to help others know and understand it too as I did while removing all the ambiguity attached to it

1. First, find an open-source project that you're interested in contributing to. You can use websites like GitHub to search for open-source projects, or you can search for projects related to a specific language or technology.

2. Once you've found a project you're interested in, read the project's documentation to understand its goals, roadmap, and how to contribute. Most open-source projects have a CONTRIBUTING.md file that provides guidelines for contributing.

1. Next, find an issue that you'd like to work on. You can search for issues that are labelled "good first issue" or "help wanted" if you're new to the project, and the best thing is it doesn't even have to be code, you can start contributing to the project documentation. Eg if to find a typo or an omission you can work on that.

2. Before you start working on an issue, it's important to communicate with the project maintainers. They can provide guidance and answer any questions you have. You can use the project's communication channels, such as discord, slack, or any medium the project uses for communication.

3. Once you've communicated with the maintainers and chosen an issue to work on, fork the project's repository to your own GitHub account. This creates a copy of the project that you can work on without affecting the original codebase.

4. Make your changes to the codebase, but before doing that make sure you created a new branch for the task you want to work on so this way you can still have the original code in the master before pushing, your changes should be made following the project's code style and guidelines. Write tests for your code if the project has a test suite

5. Once you've made your changes, commit them to your forked repository and create a pull request. In the pull request, explain what changes you've made and why they're important. Be sure to reference the issue you're addressing in the pull request.

6. The project maintainers will review your pull request and provide feedback. You may need to make additional changes to your code based on their feedback.

7. Once your pull request is accepted and merged into the project's codebase, congratulations! You've contributed to an open-source project.

8. Remember to stay engaged with the project's community. Follow the project on GitHub, participate in discussions, and continue to contribute to the project. This will help you build your skills, network with other developers, and make a positive impact on the open-source community.

That's it! Good luck with your open-source contributions!🤓

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