Rust, with its unique blend of performance, safety, and versatility, has become a powerhouse in the programming world. For developers eager to dive into the heart of Rust's open-source ecosystem, this blog serves as a gateway to some of the most impactful and exciting projects. Curated with care, we present a list of 10 repositories that span various domains, offering contributors of all levels a chance to shape the future of Rust.

When curating this list, several parameters were considered to ensure a diverse range of opportunities for developers of all levels. The criteria include:

• Diversity of Domains: Projects were selected from various domains such as web development, browser engines, game development, asynchronous programming, and system-level libraries. This ensures contributors can find projects aligned with their interests.

• Community Engagement: Projects with active and welcoming communities were prioritized. An engaged community provides support, guidance, and mentorship for new contributors.

• Impact: The selected projects have a significant impact on the Rust ecosystem or on broader technology domains. Contributions to these projects can influence the future of Rust in different areas.

• Documentation: Projects with well-maintained and comprehensive documentation were favored. Clear documentation facilitates an easier onboarding process for new contributors.

• New-Contributor Friendly: Efforts were made to include projects that are considered friendly to new contributors. Projects with labeled "good first issue" or similar tags were preferred.

1. Servo

• Language: Rust
• Tags: Web, Browser Engine, Parallelism
• Description: Servo, Mozilla's next-gen browser engine, focuses on providing a secure and parallelized browsing experience. Servo is known for having a welcoming community and actively labels issues suitable for new contributors.

2. Hyperswitch

• Language: Rust
• Tags: Payments, Orchestration, high-performance
• Description: An open source payments switch written in Rust to make payments fast, reliable and affordable

3. Tokio

• Language: Rust
• Tags: Asynchronous, Runtime
• Description: Tokio is a runtime for developing reliable asynchronous applications in Rust. The project actively encourages contributions from new contributors, and its documentation is beginner-friendly.

4. Rocket

• Language: Rust
• Tags: Web, Framework
• Description: Rocket is an async web framework for Rust with a focus on usability, security, extensibility, and speed. The project is well-documented, and its community actively supports newcomers.

5. Crates.io

• Language: Rust
• Tags: Package Registry, Libraries
• Description: Crates.io serves as the official package registry for Rust, hosting a vast collection of libraries and tools. The project maintains clear guidelines for new contributors and regularly tags beginner-friendly issues.

6. Rust Analyzer

• Language: Rust
• Tags: IDE, Code Analysis
• Description: Rust Analyzer is a modular compiler frontend for the Rust language. It is a part of a larger rls-2.0 effort to create excellent IDE support for Rust.

7. Diesel

• Language: Rust
• Tags: ORM, Query Builder, Database
• Description: Diesel is a safe, powerful, extensible ORM and Query Builder for Rust. The project maintains comprehensive documentation, and its community is known for being supportive of new contributors.

8. Nushell

• Language: Rust
• Tags: Shell, CLI
• Description: Nushell is a modern shell written in Rust that focuses on simplicity and flexibility. The project is known for its friendly community and actively encourages contributions from developers of all levels.

9. Actix

• Language: Rust
• Tags: Actor, Framework, Distributed Systems
• Description: Actix is a powerful, actor-based framework for building concurrent and distributed systems in Rust. The project maintains a helpful guide for new contributors and regularly tags issues suitable for beginners.

10. Ockam

• Language: Rust
• Tags: Networking, Security
• Description: Ockam is a suite of open source programming libraries and command line tools to orchestrate end-to-end encryption, mutual authentication, key management, credential management, and authorization policy enforcement – at massive scale.

Getting Started with Contribution

Before diving into these repositories, familiarize yourself with Rust and its development ecosystem. The official Rust book is an excellent resource for developers at all levels. Each repository has documentation on how to contribute, covering code style, issue tracking, and pull requests.

In addition to these repositories, there's a valuable resource that no Rust enthusiast should overlook— This Week in Rust. This community-driven initiative aggregates Rust-related news, updates, and most importantly, a curated list of issues across various Rust projects. If you're on the lookout for a tailored contribution or seeking the perfect project to kickstart your open-source journey, This Week in Rust is your go-to source.

Finally, do engage with the community through forums and chat channels to gain insights and guidance. Whether you're a seasoned Rust developer or a newcomer, there's a place for everyone in the dynamic Rust open-source community. Happy coding!