AI has made it easier than ever to contribute to your favorite open source projects. Maintainers are getting more contributions than ever before. Sounds like a dream, right?

It’s not.

The volume is overwhelming, and the quality of the PRs is not up to par. So frustrating, in fact, that a growing number of projects are responding with “No AI contributions” rules, and some are shutting down contributions altogether.

That reaction is understandable. But it is also a mistake.

AI is changing how people develop software, and therefore how they contribute to your project. You can’t stop the wave. So you might as well learn how to surf.

This talk is a practical guide to prepare open source maintainers to handle that shift.

I’ll cover how to improve your repo readiness so contributors using AI can navigate your project and write code that meets your standards. I’ll also share how you can use AI yourself to triage issues and PRs without burning out.

As a maintainer of a project with 400+ contributors, I’ve learned to stop fighting and instead embrace the shift. The result is a stronger, more active community where more people get to experience the joy of contributing to open source.