Ranked by how they treat first pull requests
The most beginner-friendly open source projects
Projects that merge pull requests from outside contributors and answer them quickly: the two things a newcomer cannot see before sending one.
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1. tryAGI/HuggingFace C#
C# SDK for the Hugging Face API -- inference, embeddings, and model hub
100% of outside PRs merged Maintainers usually reply within 1 day
1 open beginner issue 58 stars
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2. cdk8s-team/cdk8s-plus TypeScript
A software development framework that provides high level abstractions for authoring Kubernetes applications.
99% of outside PRs merged Maintainers usually reply within 1 day
1 open beginner issue 163 stars
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3. BSData/horus-heresy-3rd-edition Python
100% of outside PRs merged Maintainers usually reply within 1 day
2 open beginner issues 37 stars
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4. journiv/journiv-app JavaScript
Journiv - Self hosted private journaling app
100% of outside PRs merged Maintainers usually reply within 1 day
2 open beginner issues 1,209 stars
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5. mlcommons/storage Python
MLPerf® Storage Benchmark Suite
100% of outside PRs merged Maintainers usually reply within 1 day
1 open beginner issue 203 stars
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6. OCHA-DAP/topo-tools-py Python
99% of outside PRs merged Maintainers usually reply within 1 day
1 open beginner issue 26 stars
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7. humhub/humhub PHP
HumHub is an Open Source Enterprise Social Network. Easy to install, intuitive to use and extendable with countless freely available modules.
98% of outside PRs merged Maintainers usually reply within 1 day
4 open beginner issues 6,745 stars
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8. Homebrew/homebrew-cask Ruby
🍻 Default casks (upstream binary packages) for the package manager for everywhere
98% of outside PRs merged Maintainers usually reply within 1 day
1 open beginner issue 22,234 stars
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9. api7/aisix Rust
Open-source AI gateway for LLMs & AI agents, built in Rust. One OpenAI-compatible API for OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Bedrock & more — routing, guardrails, caching, rate limits, observability.
99% of outside PRs merged Maintainers usually reply within 1 day
2 open beginner issues 169 stars
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10. ShaftHQ/SHAFT_ENGINE Java
Java test automation framework for web, mobile, API, CLI, database, and desktop E2E testing with a fluent API and built-in reporting.
97% of outside PRs merged Maintainers usually reply within 1 day
1 open beginner issue 410 stars
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11. agilepathway/label-checker TypeScript
Check pull requests for the presence or absence of specified labels
97% of outside PRs merged Maintainers usually reply within 1 day
1 open beginner issue 94 stars
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12. rancher/rke2 Go
96% of outside PRs merged Maintainers usually reply within 1 day
7 open beginner issues 2,344 stars
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13. Automattic/syndication PHP
Syndicate your WordPress content.
100% of outside PRs merged Maintainers usually reply within 1 day
1 open beginner issue 107 stars
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14. MoonLadderStudios/MoonMind Python
Run Claude Code, Codex, and any Omnigent agent with superior security, resiliency, and observability.
99% of outside PRs merged Maintainers usually reply within 1 day
1 open beginner issue 12 stars
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15. freebsd/kyua C++
Port/Package build and test system
100% of outside PRs merged Maintainers usually reply within 1 day
1 open beginner issue 175 stars
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16. anomalyco/opencode-drive TypeScript
100% of outside PRs merged Maintainers usually reply within 1 day
1 open beginner issue 32 stars
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17. 1Panel-dev/laya-server TypeScript
A self-hosted API and web interface for Laya’s structured decision models, compatible with the TypeSafe Jev API format.
97% of outside PRs merged Maintainers usually reply within 1 day
1 open beginner issue 72 stars
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18. JuliaRegistries/General Julia
The official registry of general Julia packages
94% of outside PRs merged Maintainers usually reply within 1 day
1 open beginner issue 732 stars
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19. umbraco/Umbraco-CMS-MCP-Dev TypeScript
97% of outside PRs merged Maintainers usually reply within 1 day
2 open beginner issues 39 stars
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20. babashka/cli Clojure
Turn Clojure functions into CLIs!
100% of outside PRs merged Maintainers usually reply within 1 day
1 open beginner issue 295 stars
How this ranking works
Score = merge rate × reply speed. The merge rate is the share of pull requests from outside contributors (anyone who is not an owner, member or collaborator of the project, bots excluded) merged in the last 30 days, smoothed as (merged + 1) ÷ (sent + 2) so a few lucky merges do not outrank a long record. The reply speed is 1 ÷ (1 + the median number of days before a pull request gets its first reply from someone other than its author, or is merged). Bot comments do not count as replies.
Listed: projects with at least 10 outside pull requests in that window, at least one open beginner issue, at least 10 stars, a push in the last 180 days, not archived, and measured in the last 30 days.