Phase 04 of 5

Open Source

Open source is the cultural substrate of developer communities. Understanding and participating in it is non-negotiable for effective DevRel at any level.

1 skill modules9 topics4–6 weeks at 5 hours a week
Your progress in this phase0%
0 of 10 steps · 0 of 1 Compass Challenges complete

About this phase

Open source is where developers learn, collaborate and build their reputations. Most modern software depends on it, and many developer communities form around it. For DevRel, open source is both a skill (contributing, maintaining) and a strategy (using openness to build trust, adoption and community).

Nadia Eghbal's Working in Public describes an important shift: many popular projects now have large numbers of users but very few maintainers. The bottleneck isn't contributions; it's maintainer attention. Good DevRel in open source makes maintainers' lives easier. It triages, documents, onboards contributors well and never floods projects with low-effort PRs.

This phase covers the full picture, from your first pull request to company open source strategy, governance and licensing.

By the end of this phase you'll be able to
  • Make meaningful contributions to open source projects — code, docs and triage
  • Maintain a healthy repository: issues, labels, good first issues and reviews
  • Explain common governance models and open source licenses to developers and colleagues
  • Advise on when and how a company should open source something — and how to sustain it

Skill modules

Each module follows the same path — Learn → Resources → Challenge. Work through them in order, or jump to the one you need.

How do you participate in — and help sustain — open source?

0/9 topics
  1. Contributing Code & DocumentationPull requests, issue fixes, docs improvements — showing up where developers actually work.
  2. Issues & Pull Request ManagementReviewing contributions, writing clear issues, triaging community-submitted bugs.
  3. Labelling, Cleanup & TriageMaintaining a healthy issue backlog as a public signal of project vitality and responsiveness.
  4. Good First IssuesCurating approachable entry points for new contributors — the onboarding ramp for open source.
  5. Open Source Governance ModelsCNCF, Apache Foundation, BDFL, OpenJS — how major projects are governed and decisions are made.
  6. Open Source Strategy for CompaniesWhen and how to open source products or components to drive community and adoption.
  7. Sustaining ContributorsRecognition, maintainer programs, contributor summits — keeping people engaged long-term.
  8. Licensing & Legal BasicsMIT, Apache 2.0, GPL, BSL — what the most common licenses mean and why it matters for DevRel.
  9. Open Source as DevRel LeverageUsing OSS contributions to build credibility, trust, and industry relationships.
🧭 Challenge: Land your first meaningful open source contributionStart module →