My Journey Contributing to Kestra — From Curiosity to 13 Merged PRs 🎉
Hey everyone 👋
It’s been quite a while since I started contributing to Kestra — an incredible open-source orchestration and automation platform.
Over this period, I’ve had 13 pull requests merged and am currently working on a couple more! 🚀
I started contributing to Kestra about a year ago with a simple goal — to test my ability to contribute to a completely unknown open-source project.
What began as an experiment soon turned into a meaningful learning journey filled with amazing people, thoughtful reviews, and real-world experience.
🌱 How It Started
When I first stumbled upon Kestra, I didn’t know much about its codebase or structure.
My goal was to get comfortable reading large-scale open-source code and understand how production-grade projects are maintained.
At first, it was a bit overwhelming — new components, different patterns, and a well-structured codebase.
But the Kestra team and community were super welcoming, and with each PR, I started understanding the architecture better.
🛠️ My Contributions
Over time, I’ve worked on multiple issues, including UI improvements, component enhancements, and performance optimizations.
During the WeMakeDevs Open Source competition, I worked on one of my favorite issues — creating a component that shows execution stats based on different timelines like 7 days, 14 days, and 28 days.
🔗 PR: github.com/kestra-io/kestra/pull/11738
I integrated these stats into several key areas, including:
- 📊 The Triggers page
- 🔗 The Dependencies section
- 🧭 The Overview page
I also implemented localStorage to persist user preferences for better usability.
This task helped me dive deeper into data visualization, component reusability, and Vue.js best practices within a large-scale project.
💡 What I’ve Learned
Contributing to Kestra has been an incredible growth experience. Here are some of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned:
- 🧩 Reading and navigating a large, real-world Vue.js + Java backend codebase
- ✨ Writing clean, maintainable code that fits project conventions
- 💬 Communicating effectively in open-source environments — reviewing, discussing, and refining ideas
- 🎨 Balancing functionality and UI consistency while developing new features
🤝 The Community
The best part of this journey has been the Kestra community 💙
Everyone is supportive, open to feedback, and always ready to help. It’s rare to find such a collaborative environment where you can truly learn and grow while contributing.
Even after the WeMakeDevs event, I plan to continue contributing — because Kestra has become more than just a project for me; it’s a space where I’ve learned, collaborated, and evolved as a developer.
📈 My Merged PRs
You can check out all my merged contributions here:
👉 Satvik’s PRs on Kestra GitHub
💬 Final Thoughts
If you’ve ever thought about contributing to open source but don’t know where to start — just pick a project and begin.
It might seem challenging at first, but with consistency and curiosity, you’ll be amazed at how much you can learn.
I’m incredibly grateful to the Kestra team for their constant support and for giving contributors like me a chance to learn and grow. ❤️