From a Newsletter Link to My First Open Source Contribution

My first real contribution to open source was very different from what I expected, immediately felt in love with the process, and completely changed how I see open source.

A random newsletter link

I found the project by accident.

It was featured in one of the newsletters I regularly read. The headline caught my attention “a fast, modern browser for the npm registry”, it sounded interesting, so I clicked. https://npmx.dev/

The interface was clean, fast, thoughtful. It felt very modern and with a very big emphasis on accessibility. I also saw a feature that I’d been wanting when writing ADRs for years. The compare functionality! https://npmx.dev/compare

I had such a struggle in the past to find a good way to compare similar packages. I had to open a couple of tabs, navigate around, find the the downloads, issues, pull requests, vulnerabilities and stars count. It was such a pain. So when I saw that npmx had this feature built in, I was immediately intrigued.

Curiosity turns into contribution

In most recent years, I’ve been pretty focused on my work and personal projects and haven’t really explored much outside of it. I’d read about open source contributions, but it always felt a bit abstract. I’d never really dived into a project and tried to contribute.

I had a bit of free time that day, so I thought, why not check it out? Can I do a meaningful contribution? What’s the process like?

I went to the issues tab. I wanted to see how the project was organised. Were things labelled clearly? Were discussions active? Did maintainers respond?

Everything looked very alive.

So I did something I’d never really done before and I decided to contribute.

This was my first proper open source contribution. Despite mentoring others and reviewing countless PRs professionally, I’d never meaningfully contributed to a public project before. There’s something psychologically different about doing it in the open.

As a Bulgarian, I saw a dropdown with a list of languages. I thought, “Hey, maybe I can help with the Bulgarian translation!” So I opened a PR to add Bulgarian to the list of supported languages. https://github.com/npmx-dev/npmx.dev/pull/1472

It was very quick and easy. I forked the repo, made the change, and opened a PR. The maintainers were very responsive and helpful. Within a couple of minutes the PR was merged.

I was very happy and satisfied, I made my first meaningful contribution to open source.

React engineer reading Nuxt code

The project is built with Nuxt and Vue.

I’ve spent most of my career in the React ecosystem. Everything felt different. The mental models, patterns, conventions.

But here’s the thing: good code is good code.

The structure was clear. The intent was readable. The architecture made sense. I didn’t feel blocked or confused. It was easy to navigate and reason about.

That says a lot about the maintainers.

No matter the framework, clean abstractions and thoughtful structure are the key here.

The addictive feedback loop

After the first PR got merged, I immediately looked for another opportunity.

Then another.

It sounds dramatic, but the feedback loop felt almost like a drug.

No endless waiting. No gatekeeping. No bureaucracy.

When you see how quickly things move, it makes you want to contribute more and it makes you care more about the project.

I realised I wasn’t just interested in the tool anymore, but in the people behind it, who built this? What their values were? And how they worked? I wanted to be part of that.

Community > Code

What stood out most wasn’t the tech stack or the velocity.

It was how welcoming everyone was, a few things that really stood out to me:

• Questions were answered without ego.
• Suggestions were discussed openly.
• Accessibility was taken very seriously.
• New contributors were treated like peers.

Open source can be intimidating, I know that because I tried it in the past. Large repos. Confident voices. Long discussion threads.

This didn’t feel like that.

It felt like joining a small and exciting startup team.

Falling in love with open source

I didn’t expect my first contribution to feel this great.

I even told my wife about the whole project and how excited I was about a PR being merged, and she was surprised by my enthusiasm (doesn’t happen often).

I fell in love with the process almost instantly.

Not just with the project - but with open source itself.

I realised that open source isn’t just about code. You give your time and energy to something you care about, and in return, you get to be part of something bigger than yourself.

If you’re on the fence

If you’ve never contributed before, here’s my honest advice:

1. Find a project you like or care about.
2. Read the issues.
3. Pick something small, could be a typo fix, documentation update, or adding a new translation.
4. Open a PR.

That’s it.

For me, that random newsletter link turned into my first contribution, multiple merged PRs, and a community I genuinely enjoy being part of.

Now when reading my newsletters, I explore the projects and try to contribute if I can. It’s becoming my new hobby.

Sometimes all it takes is clicking one link.

And sometimes, that link leads you to something much bigger than code.