What this prompt does
This prompt casts the model as a developer advocate who helps you build an open source contribution strategy tied to career growth. You supply [experience_level], [skills], [time_commitment], [career_goal], and [interests], and it returns repository selection criteria, five recommended repos, a three-month contribution roadmap, best practices, and high-impact contribution types beyond just code.
The structure turns "I should contribute to open source" into a concrete plan. It gives criteria for picking repos — active maintenance, welcoming to contributors, aligned with your [skills] and [career_goal], and the right size — then recommends five specific repositories in a table with contribution type, difficulty, and impact potential. The three-month roadmap ramps you from documentation fixes and good-first-issues in month one to meaningful bug fixes and a small feature in month two, to a significant contribution and reputation-building in month three. The [month_3_goal] slot lets you set a personal target for that final stage.
When to use it
- When you want to contribute to open source strategically, not randomly.
- To pick the right repositories that match your skills and career direction.
- When you need a paced, realistic roadmap instead of trying to land a big PR cold.
- To build a public reputation that supports consulting, hiring, or developer-advocacy goals.
- When you're unsure how to start beyond fixing a typo.
Example output
You get repository selection criteria, a table of five recommended repos (with why each fits, contribution type, difficulty from beginner to intermediate, and impact potential), and a structured three-month roadmap broken into weekly goals: documentation fixes and good-first-issues in month one, tested bug fixes and a proposed small feature in month two, a significant contribution and onboarding others in month three. It also lists contribution best practices (small PRs, tests, fast review responses) and high-impact non-code contribution types like documentation.
Pro tips
- Be specific in
[skills]and[career_goal]so the recommended repos actually align — "Laravel and DevOps, aiming for senior consulting" yields far better picks than vague inputs. - Set
[time_commitment]honestly; the roadmap's pacing assumes the hours you give it, and an over-ambitious plan stalls fast. - Verify each recommended repo is genuinely active before investing — the model may not know a project's current maintenance status, so check recent commits yourself.
- Start with documentation and good-first-issues as the roadmap suggests; small, merged PRs build credibility faster than one big unreviewed one.
- Use
[month_3_goal]to set a concrete personal milestone, like becoming a recognized contributor on one specific repo. - Keep PRs under about 200 lines as the best-practices section advises — smaller PRs get reviewed and merged faster.
