What is OSS-Dev? OSS-Dev is an Open Source Contributor Operating System — a CLI platform that helps developers discover, understand, and contribute to open source projects faster.
Who is it for? First-time contributors, GSSoC participants, GSoC aspirants, students, maintainers, and developer communities.
Is it free? Yes, OSS-Dev is MIT licensed and completely free.
Do I need a Gemini API key? Yes, for AI-powered features. Get one at https://aistudio.google.com/apikey
Do I need GitHub CLI?
Recommended but not required. You can set GITHUB_TOKEN environment variable instead.
Can I use OpenAI instead of Gemini?
Experimental — the OpenAI provider is mostly unimplemented (raises NotImplementedError for most methods). Set provider = "openai" and API_KEY env var at your own risk.
How do I find issues to work on?
oss-dev discover issues --good-first
How do I start contributing?
oss-dev mentor https://github.com/owner/repo/issues/123
Can I resume interrupted work?
Yes, oss-dev mentor --resume restores your last session.
Is my token safe? Yes. Tokens are loaded from environment variables only, never logged or stored in the repository.
How do I install from source? See README.md (Setup section)
How do I write a plugin? Plugin interfaces exist but a full plugin development guide is not yet published. See CONTRIBUTING.md for now.
How do I contribute? See CONTRIBUTING.md
oss-dev doctor says GitHub CLI not found
Install: sudo apt install gh && gh auth login
Tests fail with import errors
Run uv sync --dev to install dependencies.
Permission denied when accessing repository
Check GITHUB_TOKEN environment variable.