How we use GitLab to grow open source communities

GitLab's Contributor Success team addressed challenges faced by first-time open source contributors by conducting research studies and implementing a personalized onboarding process that integrated GitLab tools like issue templates, webhooks, and the GitLab Query Language (GLQL). Initial research in 2023 revealed that contributors found the documentation confusing and the process overwhelming, leading to only one successful code merge out of six participants. By 2025, after refining the onboarding process with features such as immediate pipeline triggering and automated follow-ups, all ten new participants successfully merged their contributions, demonstrating a 100% success rate. These improvements not only doubled the number of contributors within nine months but also reduced response and approval times, and facilitated better recognition and engagement through a central hub for contributors. GitLab's efforts have been shared with the wider open source community to help other projects overcome similar barriers and foster a more inclusive environment.

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