What Is Open Source Guides?
Open Source Guides (opensource.guide) is a free, GitHub-maintained collection of practical guides for people who create, maintain, or contribute to open source software. It is useful if you are launching a project, looking for your first contribution, or trying to sustain an existing community — and it is not a code-hosting platform, a course, or a tool you install.
What the site actually offers
The homepage describes the site simply: "Open source software is made by people just like you. Learn how to launch and grow your project." The content is organized as standalone guides rather than a single linear course, so you can read only the topic you need.
Current guide topics listed on the site include:
| Guide | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Starting an Open Source Project | Getting ready to launch your own project |
| How to Contribute to Open Source | Making contributions, for first-timers and veterans |
| Finding Users for Your Project | Getting your project into the hands of users |
| Building Welcoming Communities | Encouraging people to use, contribute to, and evangelize your project |
| Best Practices for Maintainers | Documenting processes and leveraging your community |
| Maintaining Balance for Open Source Maintainers | Self-care and avoiding burnout |
| Leadership and Governance | Formal rules for making decisions as a project grows |
| Getting Paid for Open Source Work | Financial support for your time or your project |
| Your Code of Conduct | Adopting and enforcing healthy community behavior |
| Open Source Metrics | Measuring and tracking your project's success |
| The Legal Side of Open Source | Legal questions around open source |
| Accessibility Best Practices for Your Project | Making a project usable by everyone, especially people with disabilities |
| Security Best Practices for Your Project | MFA, code scanning, dependency management, private vulnerability reporting |
The range is the point: the site treats open source as a set of human and organizational problems (community, governance, money, law, burnout) alongside technical ones (security, accessibility).
Who it is for
Two audiences are served by the same site:
- Maintainers — people who already run a project and need help with documentation, governance, funding, or their own workload.
- Contributors — people who want to participate in someone else's project, including first-timers.
If you are deciding whether a specific project is worth contributing to, this site will not answer that. It teaches the general practice, not project-specific evaluation.
Language and access
The site is available in many languages, including English, 简体中文, 繁體中文, 日本語, 한국어, Deutsch, Français, Español, Português, Русский, العربية, Hindi, and others. The interface shows a language selector, so non-English readers are not limited to the English guides.
No pricing, account, or login requirement appears in the site content. Treat access as open reading unless you encounter a gate yourself.
How to use it
- Pick the guide matching your current situation — for example, "Starting an Open Source Project" if you have an idea but no repository, or "How to Contribute to Open Source" if you want to help an existing one.
- Read that guide end to end before jumping between topics; each is written to stand alone.
- Apply one change at a time — add a README, adopt a code of conduct, enable MFA — and check the result against the guide's stated goal.
- Return to adjacent guides as your project changes; "Finding Users" matters after launch, "Governance" after you have multiple maintainers.
A concrete example: if you have a small library with two outside contributors and no decision process, the Leadership and Governance guide is the relevant entry point, not Starting a Project.
Related entry points
The homepage also links to opensourcefriday.com, a recurring prompt to spend a few hours contributing to software you already use. The site itself is open source and invites suggestions through a "Contribute" link, so the guides are editable by readers.
If your goal is to understand what open source guides exist and which one applies to you, this site is the direct answer. If your goal is to host code, manage issues, or run CI, you need a platform rather than a guide.