[GSoC] [2026] [Project Idea] Website maintainership – more than just contribution

[princerajpoot20]

Idea

This initiative aims to guide you on a journey from being a contributor to becoming a maintainer of this project.

Currently, the website needs more hands for maintenance. We have around 130+ issues and 100+ PRs, and we clearly need additional support.

You'll gain insight into the responsibilities of a maintainer.

What being a maintainer entails

• Defining potential enhancements as GitHub issues
• Actively triaging incoming requests and bug fixes
• Resolving conflicts
• Fixing bugs or providing guidance to others
• Shifting focus from writing code to reviewing pull requests
• Writing documentation
• Performing refactoring improvements and writing tests
• Developing new features
• Basically anything you can imagine within a project

It's about taking responsibility for the project's future and continuous improvement. All of the activities described above will be part of the journey.

I can't guarantee that completing this experience will immediately qualify you to become a project maintainer. Your performance, attitude, and motivation will determine that. However, I can promise to support you throughout the journey and provide honest feedback on your strengths and areas that need improvement. Even if you're not yet ready to become a maintainer, I'll outline a plan for your next steps toward achieving that goal. I would highly recommend to read the blog post written by Lukasz Gornicki (@derberg) - https://www.brainfart.dev/blog/maintainership for more details about Maintainership.

I am working on streamlining the issue and PR processes so that we, as maintainers, can manage the project more effectively. Refer to this: #4717

---

Requirements

Interested? Your proposal should demonstrate:

• Why you are interested in becoming a maintainer. Are you willing to continue after GSoC? Please explain your reasoning.
• Why you are interested in this specific project. What motivates you to select it?
• Familiarity with the project: https://github.com/asyncapi/website - you figure out how to do it
• Previous contributions to AsyncAPI (additional points) - please provide links
• Notes on any code, features, or topics that are poorly explained or implemented, issues you encountered, and constructive criticism on aspects you disliked - be thorough in your critique

Knowledge of JavaScript - Provide links to projects you have worked on so I can review them. If you have a better way to demonstrate your knowledge, you may include that as well. You may also add a high-level explanation.

---

Project duration

350+ hours

Mentor

@princerajpoot20 @vishvamsinh28

[princerajpoot20]

For your proposal, please refer to the template provided by GSoC.

If you have any questions or doubts regarding this, feel free to reach out to me.

[sammy200-ui]

Hi @princerajpoot20!

I am thrilled to see this project idea officially open. The focus on Maintainership—shifting from just "coding features" to stewardship, triage, and stability—resonates deeply with me.

To address the requirements you outlined (refactoring, enhancements, and bug fixing), I have been actively positioning my recent contributions to support the long-term health of the repo:

1. Refactoring & Repository Hygiene

Dependency Cleanup: Authored PRs to remove deprecated scripts (#4781) and clean up unused dependencies (#4997) to reduce technical debt.

Code Quality: Worked on resolving react-hooks/exhaustive-deps warnings to clear up console warning and prevent subtle bugs (#4804).

2. Infrastructure, Process & Enhancements

CI/CD Investigation: I’ve also investigated the root cause of the flaky notify-triagers workflow (#4853) to help unblock our triage process.

Performance: Proposed replacing legacy Moment.js to reduce bundle size by ~90% (#5014).

DX Improvements: Proposed adding Husky + lint-staged (#5007) to enforce quality checks locally and save CI resources.

3. Fixes & Documentation

UX Polish: Fixed the background scrolling behavior on the Roadmap modal (#4710).

4. Code Review & Community Support

Active Reviewing: I’ve started reviewing PRs from other contributors to help reduce maintainer load, such as testing the Navbar Chevron UI fix (#4988) and verifying the Algolia Search language sync logic (#4808) also helped with understanding the code logics in #4893

Docs Maintenance: Fixed broken links in critical contributor docs like git-workflow.md (#4585) and community links (#4600) to smooth the onboarding path for others.

Regarding the "Critique" Requirement: I have already compiled a Technical Debt Audit of the current package.json (identifying deprecated analytics and redundant libraries). I will include a full breakdown of these "Clean-up" opportunities in my formal proposal.

I look forward to the possibility of stepping up as a reliable maintainer for the project!

Thanks.

[Sourya07]

Hi @princerajpoot20 @vishvamsinh28

I am really excited about this maintainership initiative for the AsyncAPI website. Over the past weeks, while contributing to the project, I’ve realized that the bigger challenge is not just adding features, but maintaining quality, reducing backlog, and supporting contributors through reviews, triage, and documentation. This is exactly the kind of responsibility all the contributors should have
While working with multiple contributors, reviewing PRs, and participating in issue discussions, I’ve gained a much better understanding of the repository — including the folder structure, scripts, GitHub workflows, and how different parts of the website fit together. These interactions helped me improve not only technically, but also in how I communicate feedback and collaborate in an open-source setting.

Some of my contributions so far include:
• PRs created & merged:
#4878, #4904, #4593, #4542
asyncapi-archived-repos/server-api#602
• Issues created:
#4892, #4929, #4881 ,#4858 ,#4757(and others)
• PR reviews:
#4890, #4857, #4942,#4903
• Issue discussions & triage participation:
#4671, #4926, #4909, #4962,#4765,#3742 and many related threads

Through this work, I’ve noticed areas where maintainership can make a real difference — such as improving triage flow, reducing review latency, clarifying patterns in the codebase, and strengthening documentation and type safety to improve contributor onboarding.

I’ve read the maintainership blog you shared and strongly relate to the idea of stewardship and long-term ownership. I’m interested in continuing my involvement beyond GSoC and gradually taking on more maintainer-like responsibilities as I grow.

Thanks a lot for your guidance and for opening this journey. I’m looking forward to your feedback on how I can contribute more effectively and improve further.

[yashdarekar17]

Hi @princerajpoot20 @vishvamsinh28,

I’m excited about this maintainership initiative because it focuses on responsibilities beyond writing code — like learning to prioritize issues, support contributors, and understand the repository workflow. When my first issue was closed as not planned, it was a valuable learning experience that helped me understand how maintainers decide priorities and how to contribute more effectively. I want to continue growing into these responsibilities.

So far, my contributions include:

• Issues raised: [DESIGN]: UI Inconsistency between Desktop and Mobile Language Dropdown #5038, [DESIGN]: Navbar dropdown icons should rotate when menu is open #4984, [BUG]: Newsletter input padding regression in local development environment #4884 (closed as not planned)

• Pull request submitted: style(navbar): rotate dropdown chevron icon 180° when menu is open #4988

• Contributor guidance: I’ve helped newcomers understand that they should wait for maintainer review before opening PRs.

Even though I was warned a couple of times about not spamming on Slack, it taught me the proper way to communicate and interact with maintainers. I’m committed to improving my contributions and learning the maintainership process.

I look forward to your guidance and feedback on how I can contribute more effectively and grow as a maintainer

[Nitanshu12]

Hi @princerajpoot20 @vishvamsinh28 ,

I’m genuinely interested in this maintainership initiative for the AsyncAPI website. While contributing recently, I have realized that the bigger challenge is not just adding new features, but maintaining quality, improving contributor experience, and helping reduce the backlog through thoughtful discussions, triage, and reviews. This initiative strongly aligns with what I want to grow into.

I’m particularly interested in the AsyncAPI website because it combines developer experience, documentation, UX/UI, and frontend engineering, which matches my interests and skill set. While contributing, I’ve started understanding the repository structure, contribution flow, CI checks, and how design and code decisions impact the overall experience.

My contributions so far include:

Pull requests: one merged, and a few others closed after maintainer feedback (#4885, #4801, #4869), which helped me better understand project expectations and design direction

Issues created: #4964 and #4909 (currently under review/discussion)

Community involvement: active participation in Slack discussions and triaged issues, engaging in issue threads, and collaborating with the design team over slack

I’ve been working on resolving small UX/UI friction points in the website that could otherwise make the experience less smooth for new contributors, especially during onboarding.

Through this process, I’ve noticed areas where maintainership can make a real difference such as clearer issue triage, smoother onboarding for new contributors, and improving UX consistency across the website. I’m keen to help in these areas over time, not only through code, but also through discussions, documentation, and support for other contributors.

I’m comfortable working with JavaScript, and I’m continuously improving through hands-on contributions. More importantly, I’m interested in staying involved beyond GSoC and gradually taking on more responsibility if given the opportunity.

Thanks for opening up this initiative and for offering guidance. I’d really appreciate feedback on how I can continue contributing more effectively and grow toward a maintainer role.

[KariraLakshya]

Hi
Mentors: @princerajpoot20, @vishvamsinh28

My primary motivation is to shift my mindset from "writing code" to "building a sustainable product." As a contributor, I have focused on solving isolated problems. As a maintainer, I want to take responsibility for the health of the entire codebase.

I enjoy the "detective work" of triage—diving into a reported bug, reproducing it, and figuring out if it is a code error or a process error. I want to be the person who unblocks other contributors, reviews their PRs, and ensures the AsyncAPI website remains a reliable resource for the community.
I view this program as an onboarding period, not a temporary gig. My goal is to become a long-term core maintainer. The investment of learning the codebase is only valuable if I apply it over time. I intend to stay active to oversee the features I implement, continue managing the issue backlog, and help new contributors onboard just as I did.

As a second-year student and active contributor, my journey with AsyncAPI has evolved from solving isolated bugs to focusing on long-term maintainability, developer experience (DX), and frontend stability. My work centers on modernizing the codebase through linting migrations, resolving complex React hydration issues, and stabilizing CI/CD pipelines to ensure a seamless workflow for future contributors. By proactively identifying and documenting critical issues—ranging from accessibility gaps to performance bottlenecks—I aim to transition from a contributor to a core maintainer who ensures the AsyncAPI website remains a robust, high-performance gateway for the community.

Contributions to AsyncAPI Website

Merged Pull Requests

• #4814
  Replaced TextLink with a standard <a> tag for the RSS feed link to fix Next.js prefetching causing 404 errors.

Pull Requests Under Review

• #4919
  Restored active Table of Contents section highlighting after client-side navigation by remounting the Scrollspy component on route changes.
• #4899
  Improved the onboarding checklist layout by removing bullet points and showing only interactive checkboxes for better visual clarity.

Issues Opened

• #4788
  Reported a missing blog image asset (canela-quetzalli.webp) causing 404 errors on the blog page.
• I’ve also investigated in solving of the flaky notify-triagers workflow ([Investigate] notify-triagers workflow is intermittently failing #4853 ) to help unblock our triage process.
• #5012
  Proposed migrating from deprecated next lint to ESLint CLI for better compatibility with Next.js 16+.
• #4940
  Identified that the "Good First Issues" dashboard incorrectly shows closed issues, confusing potential contributors.
• #4876
  Suggested improving the Adopters page contribution flow by redirecting "Submit PR" to the contribution guide instead of a raw file.
• #4864
  Reported that onboarding checklist checkboxes are disabled and unclickable, leading to poor UX.
• #4928
  Found Next.js prefetching the non-existent /slack-invite page, causing 404 errors in console for the Slack invite link.
• #4794
  Reported Next.js prefetching /rss.xml as a page (instead of static file), resulting in 404 errors.

Critique: Areas for Improvement

1. Technical Debt in Tooling: Reliance on deprecated tools like next lint and out-of-sync package-lock.json.
   • Solution: Enforce stricter CI checks and migrate to modern tooling (ESLint CLI).
2. React Hydration Stability: Site suffers from Hydration Errors where server-side HTML mismatches the client render.
   • Solution: Audit components/ for nesting violations and implement proper client-side guards.
3. Data Staleness in Dashboard: "Good First Issues" dashboard shows closed issues.
   • Solution: Refactor GitHub API fetching to filter strictly by state: open.

Knowledge of JavaScript & Projects

I have a strong background in the MERN stack, React.js and Github Actions(CI/CD).

Project 1: MLOps Auto Trainer

• GitHub
• Relevance: Demonstrates ability to build robust backend systems, CI/CD automation with GitHub Actions, and secure JWT/OIDC authentication.

Project 2: Smart-Park

• GitHub
• Relevance: Built using the MERN Stack. Demonstrates complex state management in React, RESTful API design, and responsive UI.

I look forward to the possibility of stepping up as a reliable maintainer for the project!

Thanks.