Open Source

The vast majority of businesses today rely on open source, making it an essential part of the software industry. And millions of those projects are on GitHub. Learn about documentation, maintainers, gaming Git, licenses, and how open source positively impacts the world. You can also find information in our documentation about 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.

Decorative illustration featuring Ducky inside a translucent cube surrounded by green geometric blocks.

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.

Don’t stop early: Case-folding source code at memory speed

How a branch-free loop and byte-space arithmetic let GitHub case-fold every byte of code search at >45 GiB/s on a single core.

Latest

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.

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 GitHub maintains compliance for open source dependencies

Explore how the Open Source Program Office uses GitHub’s new license compliance product to manage open source dependencies at scale.

Header image with the words 'Git 2.55 is here!'

Highlights from Git 2.55

The open source Git project just released Git 2.55. Here is GitHub’s look at some of the most interesting features and changes introduced since last time.

GitHub and UNDP team up to advance development priorities in Ghana with open source

GitHub joined the United Nations Development Programme in Ghana to explore how open source governance can support one of West Africa’s most ambitious digital reform efforts.

From pledge to practice: Building a more inclusive open source ecosystem

Learn about the progress we’ve made toward our accessibility goals and how you can help make open source more inclusive.

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.

Mona sits on a raised green block beside another block displaying a circular refresh-style icon.

What are git worktrees, and why should I use them?

Git worktrees have been around since 2015, but it wasn’t until recently they became popular. Learn what they are, how to use them, and why you might.

Beyond the engine headline with 10 open source projects shaping how games actually get made, alongside a green GitHub icon.

Beyond the engine: 10 open source projects shaping how games actually get made

Check out these 10 open source tools that help game developers create art, animation, levels, audio, dialogue, debug UIs, and engine-ready assets.

Building GitHub’s next chapter in accessibility

Explore our update on GitHub’s accessibility strategy, and learn how you can join us in building a culture of accessibility.

Dungeons & Desktops: 10 roguelikes that never die (because their communities won’t let them)

Roguelikes don’t die. They fork, mutate, get argued over, rewritten, abandoned, and revived again. Sometimes all at once.

Dungeons & Desktops: Building a procedurally generated roguelike with GitHub Copilot CLI

Learn how one Hubber used GitHub Copilot CLI to build an extension that turns any codebase into a unique, roguelike dungeon.

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.

Header image with an Octocat tentacle and an OpenClaw claw shaking hands. Information about the OpenClaw: After hours is included 'Wednesday, June 3, 2026, 5:30-9 PM. GitHub HQ, 275 Brannan St., SF, CA 94107'

Register now for OpenClaw: After Hours @ GitHub

OpenClaw builders will gather at GitHub HQ during Microsoft Build 2026 for demos and conversations. Join in person, or watch the livestream on Twitch.

Highlights from Git 2.54

The open source Git project just released Git 2.54. Here is GitHub’s look at some of the most interesting features and changes introduced since last time.