Today is definitely not the best time for open-source contributions. There are multiple questions that can't be answered freely, but the main one is: "Why do this anymore?".
If intro sounds like an existential crisis to you, then yes – it should!
In the times before AI, there was a reason. You could add this to your CV and it would be valuable, someone could admire your work, find your PR, and even debate the decisions you made during an interview.
Some other resources, like the old Stack Overflow Jobs, allowed you to add your open-source contributions as widgets visible to anyone, and they had a very prominent place on that HTML page.
But nowadays, why would you do that? First of all, someone will think you are an AI agent, he-he. So you will be accused, be ready for that. Second, why do you need to invest your time in this activity? You can always run your Claude/Codex and start building from scratch. That will get you and your repo stars, chicks and booze, popularity.
Keep in mind the recent rise and fall of OpenClaw. The guy did vibecoding at a fast pace, then sold his ideas to Microsoft. Very good path.
But why would you contribute to OpenClaw? You won’t get anything from that. The code belongs to its original creator.
Before, open-source was made by enthusiasts under some kind of agreement: we do it in our spare time and get rewarded and respected. Now you just need Claude/Codex to contribute, but it expects from you not only time but also tokens from your AI agent.
But that’s half of the problem. The main problem is: why do it in the first place? Is there drive and interest in that? Anyone can build their own open-source repo with the help of AI agents. Why would you spend your tokens and your time on someone else’s work, so that later they get all the respect and rewards?
Yes, of course there are many open-source repos where maintainers forbid using AI for contributions. That’s right and well done.
But writing handcrafted code nowadays just … feels like frustration. And that skill is slowly rotting away.
So that’s my diagnosis for the current situation. Contributing to your own repo can be fun. Contributing to someone else’s, unless you get paid/rewarded (and have clearly discussed that beforehand), just won’t work anymore. There’s no single reason for that activity.
Definitely not the best time for open-source contributors. Is open-source dead??