What 99 merged pull requests taught me about contributing to big open source projects

Описание и применение

Автор описывает, как 99 небольших исправлений в крупных проектах были успешно приняты благодаря тест‑ориентированному подходу, ясному объяснению причины ошибки и соблюдению правил проекта.

Задача

Contributing small bug fixes to large open‑source projects can be challenging due to review load, conventions, and the need for clear root‑cause explanations.

Результат

The author achieved 99 merged PRs, learned that small, root‑cause focused fixes are preferred, and gained insights into maintainer expectations and review practices.

Рабочий процесс

• 1. Identify a bug that can be proven with a failing test.
• 2. Search open/closed PRs and issues to avoid duplication.
• 3. Write a minimal change that fixes the root cause.
• 4. Add a test that fails before the change and passes after.
• 5. Follow repository conventions (commit style, PR template, CLA/DCO).
• 6. Run linters/formatters and ensure signed commits if required.
• 7. Submit PR with a concise description explaining the root cause.
• 8. Respond promptly to review comments.

Доказательства

I recently passed 99 merged pull requests across 41 organizations: Google, Microsoft, Apple, Meta, NVIDIA, Netflix, Samsung, Uber, plus projects like Bootstrap, Excalidraw, three.js, MUI, Tailwind CSS and Puppeteer.

Источник

The best contributions I made all had one thing in common: before touching the code, I could write a test that failed.

Источник

I also follow each repository's own conventions: commit message style, PR template, changelog or changeset files, CLA or DCO.

Источник