Hacktoberfest 2025: How to Participate

Hacktoberfest registrations are live, and we’re just a few days away from kicking off the month-long celebration of open source. Every October, developers from all over the world come together to contribute their skills, big and small, to open-source projects.

Code is the most common way people participate, but that’s not the only way you can help. Open source thrives on more than just commits. It needs documentation, testing, design, writing, and so much more.

Before we get into the how, let’s cover the basics.

First, the rules of Hacktoberfest:

• Register anytime before October 31.
• Contribute to projects on GitHub or GitLab that have the hacktoberfest topic.
• Submit at least 6 high-quality pull/merge requests between October 1 and October 31. These need to be accepted by project maintainers to count.
• Rewards: Everyone who signs up and gets at least one PR merged, gets a digital badge from Holopin (you can get up to 4 badges). If you’re among the first 10,000 people to complete 6 merged PRs/MRs, you’ll also get a limited edition Hactoberfest 2025 t-shirt.

That’s it! You’re ready to dive in.

Ways to contribute:

1. Code Contributions

This is what the majority of Hacktoberfest contributions consist of. Most participants jump in by submitting code to projects they care about. Maintainers, many of whom run projects purely out of passion, appreciate thoughtful, quality code more than anything.

Whether this is your 12th Hacktoberfest or your very first pull request, now’s the time to fire up GitHub or GitLab and get started.

Helpful resources:

• Introduction to GitHub and Open-Source Projects
• How to use Git
• 5 things for your first time contributing

2. Maintaining a project

Hacktoberfest isn’t only for contributors. It’s for maintainers too. If you’ve got a project idea that could help the community, you can launch it now and take part as a maintainer.

If you’re already maintaining an open-source project, here’s how to prepare it for Hacktoberfest contributions:

• Add the hacktoberfest topic to your repo.
• Label issues with help wanted, good first issue, and hacktoberfest.
• Keep issues well-scoped so new contributors don’t feel overwhelmed.
• Add a CONTRIBUTING.md file with clear guidelines.
• Adopt a code of conduct to keep the community welcoming.
• Be ready to review contributions. Merge valid PRs/MRs, approve them, or mark them with hacktoberfest-accepted.
• Close spammy or invalid contributions with the spam or invalid labels.

3. Low- and No-Code Contributions

You don’t need to be a developer to participate. Open source projects need way more than code. Here are some impactful ways to contribute without writing a single line:

• Improve or write technical documentation.
• Help with user experience testing.
• Write tutorials, blog posts, or case studies.
• Share feedback on usability.

Maintainers: if you want to accept these types of contributions, you may need to set up an activity log so participants can submit PRs/MRs that count toward Hacktoberfest.

A note from MLH (Hacktoberfest sponsor)

Hacktoberfest wouldn’t be possible without the open-source community or without sponsors like MLH. As Mike Swift from MLH put it:

“The same way that hackathons are a dedicated space to work on personal projects, Hacktoberfest is an opportunity for all of us to get involved in the open source community. Whether you’re a first-time contributor or a long-term maintainer, by participating in Hacktoberfest you’re part of a worldwide movement to grow the open source ecosystem and train the next generation of open source citizens.”

Get involved

No matter how you participate, Hacktoberfest is about showing up with good energy, respecting maintainers, and making meaningful contributions.

Registration is open!

Bring your skills, your curiosity, and your open-source spirit. Let’s make Hacktoberfest 2025 a success together.