Maintainers

Maintainers play a crucial role in open source projects and serve as the backbone of the open source ecosystem. Get insights into effective project management and community building techniques to create a welcoming and productive environment for contributors. You can also find information in our documentation around how to build and foster sustainable open source communities.

Featured

OpenClaw went viral. Meet the maintainers building and securing it.

OpenClaw is the fastest-growing project in GitHub history. Peter Steinberger and several maintainers share what they learned in the project’s first six months.

A decorative header image showing GitHub Secure Open Source Fund, powered by GitHub Sponsors. Logos below are: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, American Express, chainguard, Datadog, herdevs, Kraken, Microsoft, Mayfield, Shopify, stripe, superbloom, Vercel, 1Password, Zerodha

What 50 open source projects taught us about security in the AI era

See how the open source projects in Session 4 of the GitHub Secure Open Source Fund combined AI-assisted workflows, maintainer expertise, GitHub security tools, expert guidance, and funding to improve project security.

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Your contributors are AI-first now. Is your project?

AI contributors are already in your queue. AutoGPT maintainer Nicholas Tindle shares the repo instructions, gates, and boundaries that keep maintainers in control.

GitHub announces $100 million for open source, with Mona among geometric cubes.

$100 million for open source: A milestone built by the community

Celebrating $100 million contributed by the community to the people who build and sustain open source every day.

Latest

6 security settings every GitHub maintainer should enable this week

These six free settings will not make your project unhackable. Nothing will. What they will do is close the easy doors. Turn these on, and your project will be meaningfully harder to attack than it was before.

How pull request limits are cutting down the noise

Learn how pull request limits can help manage contribution volume in your repositories, and see what’s next on the roadmap.

Maintainer Month artwork with the headline Celebrating the people behind the code.

Welcome to Maintainer Month: Celebrating the people behind the code

What maintainers are telling us, what we’ve shipped, and how to celebrate the people behind open source.

Rethinking open source mentorship in the AI era

As contribution volume grows, mentorship signals are harder to read. The 3 Cs framework helps maintainers mentor more strategically… without burning out.

Joining forces to strengthen open source security. 280,000+ maintainers: receive free Copilot Pro, advanced security, and resources so maintainers can ship and stay secure.

Investing in the people shaping open source and securing the future together

See how GitHub is investing in open source security funding maintainers, partnering with Alpha-Omega, and expanding access to help reduce burden and strengthen software supply chains.

What to expect for open source in 2026

Let’s dig into the 2025’s open source data on GitHub to see what we can learn about the future.

Securing the AI software supply chain: Security results across 67 open source projects

Learn how The GitHub Secure Open Source Fund helped 67 critical AI‑stack projects accelerate fixes, strengthen ecosystems, and advance open source resilience.

Welcome to the Eternal September of open source. Here’s what we plan to do for maintainers.

Open source is hitting an “Eternal September.” As contribution friction drops, maintainers are adapting with new trust signals, triage approaches, and community-led solutions.

5 podcast episodes to help you build with confidence in 2026

Looking ahead to the New Year? These GitHub Podcast episodes help you cut through the noise and build with more confidence across AI, open source, and developer tools.

Photo of developers mingling at the Open Source Zone at GitHub Universe 2025.

This year’s most influential open source projects

From Appwrite to Zulip, Universe 2025’s Open Source Zone was stacked with standout projects showing just how far open source can go. Meet the maintainers—and if you want to join them in 2026, you can now apply for next year’s cohort.

MCP joins the Linux Foundation: What this means for developers building the next era of AI tools and agents

MCP is moving to the Linux Foundation. Here’s how that will affect developers.

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“The local-first rebellion”: How Home Assistant became the most important project in your house

Learn how one of GitHub’s fastest-growing open source projects is redefining smart homes without the cloud.

Building beyond the browser: Keeley Hammond on Electron, open source, and the future of maintainership

Learn what it really takes to sustain one of the web’s most widely used frameworks on this episode of the GitHub Podcast.

Building personal apps with open source and AI

Hear about the personal tools we use to improve our workflows (and how to get started building your own) on this episode of the GitHub Podcast.

How GitHub Models can help open source maintainers focus on what matters

Learn how GitHub Models helps open source maintainers automate repetitive tasks like issue triage, duplicate detection, and contributor onboarding — saving hours each week.