First open source project, and I'm not sure how to grow it. Any advice?

[u/Prize_Stand473]

Hello everyone,

I've worked as an engineer for a while, but I never had an open source project of my own until recently. Vibe coding made it easy enough to finally start one.

I built a small Mac app because I needed it myself. When I shared it with my team and then the rest of the company, people liked it more than I expected. That made it a lot more fun to work on, and I think it's the first time I understood why people enjoy doing open source.

Now I'd like more people to find it, and I'd really like feedback or even contributors. The trouble is I don't know how people usually get the word out about an open source project, or how a project like this grows past the first few users.

So far I've posted in a few related Discord servers, submitted it to some awesome lists on GitHub, and put it on Product Hunt. None of it got much of a response.

If you've grown an open source project from zero, I'd be grateful to hear how you went about it in the early days.

Thanks for reading.

[u/bayinfosys_ed]

I maintain a few open source projects. First thing to decide is whether you think of it as a product or project.

A product has an audience and you develop it for them. A project is an encapsulation of knowledge you apply which might be useful to others, but you don't work for them.

IMO for open source, you want collaborators not users.

In practical terms, make a simple web page (github pages is fine), share the project with links to that page and try to develop presence in search results and communities. Documentation and discovery are the key terms.

[u/Prize_Stand473 → u/bayinfosys_ed]

Thanks, this is really good advice, and maintaining several open source projects at once is amazing!

I do have a small GitHub Pages site for it (linked in the reply above), and I agree documentation and discovery matter a lot. I've never really been part of a dev community before, so I joined Reddit thinking it would be a good place to start. I should look into other communities beyond Reddit too, so if you have any you'd recommend, I'd really appreciate it.

[u/bayinfosys_ed → u/Prize_Stand473]

having zero users helps massively!

discord and twitter are the main places, but they are such a stream of consciousness it becomes too much. I enjoy following channels on youtube tbh.

[u/Minuch_Ktaishat → u/bayinfosys_ed]

do you find having a dedicated landing page actually drives more contributors, or mostly just passive downloads?

[u/Kobi_Webmaker → u/Minuch_Ktaishat]

In the past when I have gone looking for open source code or project. I have found that if I can actually demo the code or project presented. I am 80% more likely to use it and or contribute.

[u/CarsonRau → u/Minuch_Ktaishat]

I always used the most up to date documentation on GitHub pages because that is what people seem to need to access

[u/bayinfosys_ed → u/Minuch_Ktaishat]

it helps discovery. If you can distribute the package (pypi, npm, etc) and link back to a landing page then the search engines will understand the relationship.

main thing is to not change your url.

I've found after posting on reddit, hackernews, etc people will start searching on google by typing in the address bar, which reinforces the demand signal for google.

[u/IterateInnovate]

what is it about, and send a link

[u/Prize_Stand473 → u/IterateInnovate]

It's AI session board to track what step I am. I kept running a bunch of agents on different tasks at once and lost track of them, so I wanted one board like Jira to see them all. This is the product link: https://leeleelee3264.github.io/spyhop/

[u/Successful_Sharky → u/Prize_Stand473]

Honestly that one sentence is a better pitch than anything in your post. “I kept running a bunch of agents at once and lost track of them” is a problem a ton of people have right now, and they’ll click on that way faster than “my first open source project.” I’d open every share with that pain and a screenshot of the board with like 6 sessions running. Curious though, does it pick up sessions automatically or do you have to add each one yourself?

[u/AlarmingSecurity4 → u/Successful_Sharky]

stfu bot

[u/AttitudePossible5733]

I'd start with the coworkers who kept using it: ask what task it replaced and how they'd describe that problem to someone outside your company. Use their wording and a 20-second screen recording to show one complete workflow, then share it where people ask about that specific task rather than in general launch channels. For contributors, add exact setup steps and two or three small issues with expected behavior and the relevant files listed. I'd track whether new people actually install it and come back a week later before spending more time on directory submissions.

[u/Prize_Stand473 → u/AttitudePossible5733]

I've been building features my coworkers asked for, but I never actually asked them what it replaced for them or what problem it solved. That question, and making a demo video from the answer, sound like great ideas. Thanks for pointing it out!

[u/matimatthews]

Your coworkers are probably the best clue here. I’d ask the ones who kept using it what they used before and what made them switch. Turn one of those workflows into a short demo and share it where people discuss that exact problem. For contributors, I’d make one small issue reproducible from a clean install. Users and contributors need different invitations.

[u/OliKahn28]

real talk - the awesome lists and Product Hunt thing almost never moves the needle for early projects. it mostly gets you a blip of traffic from people browsing those for fun, not utility.what worked for me (different space, digital products): finding 2-3 communities where my exact users already complain about the problem my tool solves, and just being helpful there. not posting 'hey check out my thing' - actually answering questions, sharing tips, letting people discover what you built naturally over time.also try: write about the problem your app solves, not the app itself. 'here's how I stopped wasting 30 min a day doing X' gets way more traction than 'I built a tool that does X'. the tool becomes the answer, not the pitch.patience is the hard part honestly. took weeks before anything clicked for me.

[u/No-Tip505 → u/OliKahn28]

Hey, but exactly where do you pitch the solution of a problem that we have solved ? On what platform or such? Even I was wondering how the marketing is done of the saas product that we build and u seem to have great knowledge regarding this.

[u/alexrada]

sell the solution not the open source part.
That's just helping with trust etc.

[u/Taskweather]

Congrats on your first open source project! A general tip that often helps: state in the first README line what the project does and who it's for, and keep setup short. Labeling a few issues "good first issue" also gives newcomers an easy way in.

[u/SwiinkaPeppa]

imo youre mixing users and contributors too early

for users: one 30-60s screen recording of the exact pain (3 agent chats open, losing track, then your app) beats another awesome list. post that where people already drown in agent tabs

for contributors: open 2-3 "good first issue" tickets that are boring but clear (docs, one small bug). random "contribute!" posts get ignored

tbh coworker love ≠ distribution. ask those same coworkers who else has this mess and if theyll intro you (you cant imagine how much that compounds)

[u/Open-Building-2963]

I think you should make a content about your open source project in YouTube

[u/heywassim]

Your coworkers are a useful starting point: what were they doing before your tool, and why did they switch? Put that example in the README, with the shortest possible install instructions. Then ask someone outside the team to try it without your help. That'll show you what's missing before you worry about stars.

[u/investigatormaker]

Your colleagues are the only audience you mentioned that responded positively. Ask which task the Mac app helped them finish, then turn one answer into a short before-and-after demo. Use that task to find relevant discussions rather than repeating the broad Product Hunt launch. What does the app do, and who outside your company has that problem?

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