New to open source — how can I find a project that interests me?

[mrortach]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to open source and eager to get involved. I'd like to find a
project that genuinely interests me so I can support it over time,
but I'm not sure where to start looking.

[TongyiDai]

A good long-term project is usually one you already use or one that sits in a problem area you want to understand—not simply the repository with the most stars.

A practical way to choose:

1. List 3–5 tools, libraries, apps, or documentation sites you have actually used.
2. For each repository, check the contributing guide, recent commits, and the last few issues/PRs. Look for maintainers who still review contributions and answer questions.
3. Search its issues for good first issue and help wanted, but read the full thread: the label may be stale or somebody may already be working on it.
4. Start with a small, verifiable contribution—reproducing a bug, improving a failing test, fixing docs after testing the instructions, or a narrowly scoped bug fix.
5. Before implementing, comment on the issue with what you reproduced and the change you propose. That prevents duplicated effort and lets a maintainer correct the scope.

For each candidate, I would ask: Would I still want to read this code or help its users after my first PR is merged? If yes, it is a stronger match than a random “beginner” repository.

This repository’s project list is a useful starting directory, and GitHub’s label search can broaden it. Treat both as discovery tools; activity, maintainer response, and your genuine interest should decide the final choice.