Guide
How to pick an organisation.
One rule: pick the project that answers newcomers, not the most famous one.
A famous project gets hundreds of pull requests from strangers. Its maintainers cannot read them all, and yours waits in the pile. A smaller project that replies in a day teaches you more in a month than a famous one does in a year.
From the data
Among the 297 repositories with at least 20 outside pull requests: the one with the most stars, next to the one that answers the largest share within 48 hours. Updated 11 Oct 2026.
Most stars
- Stars
- 123k
- Reply within 48 h
- 38%
- Median first reply
- 7.8 days
- Outside PRs merged
- 38%
- Outside PRs measured
- 146
Answers the most
- Stars
- 88
- Reply within 48 h
- 98%
- Median first reply
- 4 h
- Outside PRs merged
- 96%
- Outside PRs measured
- 47
The checklist
- 1
Does a person reply within a week?
Look at first reply time and the share answered within 7 days. A bot comment does not count.
- 2
Are outside pull requests merged?
Outside merge rate of the last four months. Check the first-time contributor figure too.
- 3
Is there something to start on today?
Available starter issues: open, unassigned, unclaimed, no pull request yet.
- 4
Is the way in written down?
A contributing guide, and whether you must sign a CLA or sign off commits.
- 5
Is anyone there right now?
Commits in the last 90 days, and a trend that has not gone quiet.
- 6
Can you talk to them?
A chat or mailing list, and reply hours that overlap your day.
How to read each number
- First reply time
- The median wait for a human reply on pull requests from outside the team. Unanswered pull requests count as still waiting, so ignoring people makes the figure worse, not better.
- Outside merge rate
- Merged divided by merged plus closed-without-merge. Pull requests still open are shown separately, because nobody knows yet how they end.
- Sample size
- Every figure says how many pull requests it rests on. Under 5 there is no figure at all. Between 5 and 20, treat it as a hint.
- Starter issue states
- A label is not availability. An issue with a claim comment or a linked pull request is taken, whatever its label says.
Then do one thing well
Read the contributing guide. Pick one available issue and say on it that you are working on it. Send one small, tested pull request. A fast project is not an invitation to send ten.