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Devprentice
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Maintainer-led open-source programs.

Real project work. Guided by people.

Devprentice connects open-source project owners and developers through mentored contribution programs: a roadmap of useful work, human feedback, and room to grow together.

Prepare a ProgramI want to contribute

Free for public repositories · GitHub sign-in

  • Clear startsScoped work. A defined program.
  • Structured mentorshipFeedback with a clear next step.
  • Visible experienceWork, growth, and reviewed outcomes.

Watch the overview

See how Devprentice works.

A maintainer brings a roadmap and guidance. A contributor brings useful work and follow-through. The program gives their collaboration a clear path, from agreed expectations to reviewed progress.

Start with a shared plan.
Agree the work, availability, review points, and AI expectations before committing.
Learn through the work.
Discuss an approach, submit changes on GitHub, and use human feedback to improve them.
Keep the experience in context.
Connect the work, revisions, and reviewed outcomes in a Contribution Record you choose to share.
Devprentice overview · YouTubeWatch on YouTube

For maintainers

Your project moves forward. Someone grows with it.

  • Move useful issues and features forward with someone learning your project.
  • Build relationships that encourage continued contribution beyond the program.
  • Give project context, agree scope, and make time for guidance and review.
Prepare a Program

For contributors

Real experience. Feedback along the way.

  • Gain practical experience across a roadmap of real issues and features.
  • Get feedback and mentorship in a structured program. Practice team communication, collaboration, and responding to review.
  • Bring communication, follow-through, and revisions. Choose whether to share your resulting Contribution Record.
Get started

A clear path from curiosity to contribution.

How it works. A relationship, over time.

Code, pull requests, and code review stay on GitHub. Devprentice holds the agreed program, milestone context, and the record of what happened. The maintainer provides guidance; the contributor puts it into practice.

  1. Agree the roadmap

    Agree useful work, starting skills, availability, review points, and AI expectations before the program begins.

  2. Work, review, revise

    Work through agreed tasks with structured feedback and mentorship. Practice communicating, collaborating, and responding to review.

  3. Build on the experience

    Build a Contribution Record of your work, feedback, and growth that you choose to share.

What mentorship looks like

Feedback changes the next piece of work.

Agree the approach. Discuss progress. Review the work. Revise it. Carry that learning into the next milestone.

Each program needs its own duration, expected effort, completion criteria, and arrangements for guidance. Agree those together before committing.

  1. 1

    Agree the approach

    Day 1

    Milestone 02Add priority sorting to the support queue

    • Scope and requirements
    • Completion criteria
    • Plan and approach
  2. 2

    Submit work

    Day 3
    feature/priority-sortOpen

    Adds priority sorting to the support queue with a new sorting service and tests.

    +142−126 files changed

  3. 3

    Get feedback

    Day 4

    Maintainer · reviewKeep priority first. Add a test for issues with no label, so the bug we fixed stays fixed.

    Contributor · follow-upGot it — I’ll add the test and update the sorting logic.

  4. 4

    Revise and improve

    Day 5
    // Handle empty labels− if (a.label > b.label) {+ if (!a.label || !b.label) {+ return 0;+ }+ if (a.label > b.label) {
  5. 5

    Carry learning forward

    Next milestone

    A reviewed improvement.Learning that carries forward.

Fictional example · illustrative days and revisions, not a fixed program schedule.

Work. Growth. Experience.

Make your work easy to explain.

A Contribution Record connects agreed scope, maintainer feedback, revisions, and reviewed outcomes. A reader can see how a contributor responded to feedback and how the maintainer helped shape the work. The record stays private until the participant chooses to share it.

  • Evidence-based
  • Human-reviewed

Contribution Record

Sample Contribution Record

CompletedPrivateFictional

Invitation reliability program

Sample contributor completed Invitation reliability program · Jun 12, 2026

Accepted milestones

  1. Distinguish expired and already-used invitation links

    Acceptance criteria: Expired and already-used invitation links show distinct states, retries stay safe, and regression tests cover both.

    Reviewed by Sample maintainer on May 23, 2026.

    Acceptance context: The first review asked for an already-used-link regression test and a note on the expected state. The revision added both, so the bounded task was accepted.

    • Earlier submission 1

      First submission: distinct expired-link state with tests.

      Earlier submitted revision; not the accepted submission

    • Accepted work 2

      Added the already-used-link regression test and explained why later visits show the completed invitation state.

      Submission present when this milestone was accepted

  2. Agree the retry edge cases before coding

    Acceptance criteria: Duplicate, expired, and interrupted requests are listed and agreed before the retry path is changed.

    Reviewed by Sample maintainer on Jun 8, 2026.

    Acceptance context: The edge cases were agreed before coding, and the change matched them.

    • Accepted work 1

      Edge-case list agreed in review, then the retry change with tests.

      Submission present when this milestone was accepted

Maintainer confirmation

The maintainer confirmed that the required milestones were accepted.

Both required milestones were accepted. The contributor applied review feedback within the agreed scope.

Record details

Repository
example-org/invitation-service
Completed
Jun 12, 2026
Based on a fictional sample. This is not a skill rating, credential, or independent verification.View full sample record

Would your project fit?

Useful work. Someone ready to guide.

A library, developer tool, side project, or small application can offer meaningful work. Start with a usable repository, a sequence of improvements, and a named person who can explain the project and review contributions.

The maintainer brings the roadmap and mentoring time. Devprentice helps organize the agreement, milestones, and evidence. Eligibility is checked during setup.

Before you start

Illustrative setup · 4 steps

Make the commitment clear.

  1. 1

    Required knowledge

    What should someone already know?

    Defined
  2. 2

    Useful work

    What useful work can they grow into?

    Defined
  3. 3

    Reviewer / mentor

    Who will guide them, and when can they review?

    Defined
  4. 4

    Time, communication, and expectations

    What time, communication, and AI expectations will you agree?

    Defined
Prepare your program

Free for public repositories. Private-repository and business pricing and availability have not been announced.

FAQ

Questions, answered.

Understand the work, the people, and the expectations before you commit.

All questions
The programWhat is a program?

A planned sequence of useful open-source work with agreed goals, milestones, guidance, review, and completion criteria. The first task starts a continuing collaboration.

A roadmap, not a one-off task.

The peopleWho provides mentorship?

The project maintainer or named reviewer. Agree how to ask questions, when feedback is available, and the expected commitment for that particular program.

Guidance from a named person.

AI expectationsCan I use AI?

Programs can allow AI, allow it with disclosure, or prohibit it. Read the actual policy and responsibility statement before joining. Missing information is shown as missing; a human still decides whether work is accepted.

Read the policy before joining.

JoiningDoes signing up give me a place?

No. Sign in with GitHub and complete account setup. A join request does not reserve a place: you need a personal invitation and must accept its agreement. Maintainers begin by preparing a program.

An invitation and agreement come next.

SharingWhat becomes public?

Code and reviews follow the repository’s GitHub visibility. Your Contribution Record stays private until you choose to share it. Preview what a reader will see before publishing.

You control record sharing.

Open source thrives with more people.

Be part of a more open, more welcoming community.

Start a program that helps people grow, or join a guided path where your work and progress are visible.

Get startedOr submit a maintainer project