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New Contributor Guide

Welcome! This guide will help you get started as a contributor to Open Source Observer (OSO). Follow these steps to set up your development environment and join our community.

1. Connect to the OSO Data Lake​

Start by exploring OSO's data and understanding what we're building:

  1. Get started with OSO data - Follow the Get Started guide to access our data lake
  2. Complete a tutorial - Work through at least one tutorial using pyoso to understand our data models
  3. Test the API - Make some test queries to the OSO API to see what's available

2. Set Up Your Local Development Environment​

Install Prerequisites​

  1. Install uv - We use uv for Python dependency management
  2. Install duckdb - We use duckdb for local data exploration

Clone the core repositories​

git clone https://github.com/opensource-observer/oso.git
git clone https://github.com/opensource-observer/oss-directory.git

Run SQLMesh locally​

You should be able to run a sqlmesh plan successfully, eg:

uv run oso local sqlmesh-test --duckdb plan dev --start '1 week' --end now

Run Dagster locally​

You should be able to run uv run dagster dev successfully.

  1. Run the Docs locally

You should be able to run pnpm start successfully.

Run OSS Directory validation locally​

You should be able to run pnpm validate successfully.

3. Join the Community​

Connect with the Team​

  1. Join Discord - OSO Discord Server
    • Introduce yourself in the #lobby channel with:
      • Your name / GitHub profile
      • Brief background
      • What you'd like to work on
  2. Join Gather - OSO Gather Space
    • Recommended if you plan to contribute 10+ hours per week

Daily Stand-up​

  • Time: 16:00 UTC on Gather
  • Purpose: Share progress, unblock issues, stay connected

Find Work​

  1. Browse open issues - Help Wanted Issues
  2. Check project board - OSO Project Board
  3. Comment on issues to claim them before starting work

4. Contribution Workflow​

Development Process​

  1. Fork and branch - Create a feature branch from main
  2. Follow CI standards:
    • Run hooks and local build tests
    • For data models: run sqlmesh plan and ensure tests pass
    • For Dagster jobs: verify the materialization is successful locally
  3. Update documentation - Modify docs in apps/docs when adding/changing functionality
  4. Submit PR - Link to relevant issues and request reviews

Code Quality​

  • Follow the existing code style and patterns
  • Update documentation to include any new functionality (or issues you encountered in any of the workflows)
  • Ensure all CI checks pass before requesting review

5. Getting Help​

  • Discord: Ask questions in channel
  • GitHub: Tag maintainers on issues or PRs
  • Documentation: Check our guides and references

We're excited to have you join the OSO community! This is a collaborative effort to measure the impact of open source software, and your contributions help make it possible.