r/learnprogramming • u/Fit_Item851 • 5h ago

Is finding open source issues getting harder, or am I approaching it the wrong way?

Hi guys,

I've been trying to get back into open-source contributions after spending couple of month working on personal projects.

I had 5 bug fix PRs merged into an OSS projects, and when I create those PR, I had no issue finding issue. But when I checked that same projects recently, there weren't any open issues left.
I've also looked through quite a few other projects, especially libraries I use, but I'm struggling to find issues that aren't already assigned or being worked on. (I've looked about 30 OSS)

Even when I find an issue, someone often opens a PR before I can fully understand and solve it, especially with how fast people can submit PRs using AI nowadays.

So I'm curious, how do you guys actually find issues to work on?
Do you just keep searching through repositories until you find something available? Or do you usually find bugs or improvements, and open your own issues?

Any recs would be helpful as well! I'm into ML and Data engineering, python or TS is preferred.

Thanks!

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u/FrostyEmphasis3610 5h ago

hunting for open issues is like trying to find a parking spot at a concert that sold out 2 months ago

1

u/Fit_Item851 5h ago

Yep, totally agree with you.

2

u/catbrane 1h ago

I help run a popular OSS project. It all changed in January 2026: since then, we've been swamped by drive-by PRs generated by various AI agents. Things seem to be settling down now. We get fewer drive-bys and the flood of bugs reports has slowed right down.

I think it's not clear yet what the post-LLMs OSS dev world will look like, but I suspect most projects will simply ban AI. In which case, opportunities for human devs should improve.

1

u/FunAd6672 13m ago

Stop looking at massive popular repos where twenty people are racing for every single open tag. Look for smaller libraries with fifty stars instead of fifty thousand.