Go Projects
Go-based open source projects sorted by contributor friendliness. Stars and good-first-issue counts as of January 2026.
Beginner Friendly (Good First Issues Available)
These projects actively label issues for new contributors and have established contribution guides.
Meshery - Service Mesh Management Plane
| Repo | meshery/meshery |
| Stars | 9.8k |
| Language | Go + React |
| Good First Issues | 36 open |
| CNCF | Sandbox |
| What it does | Web-based management plane for service meshes, Kubernetes, and cloud-native infra |
| Why contribute | Highest number of good-first-issues. Actively mentors new contributors. GSoC participant. |
| Entry points | UI features, Go backend, docs, Kubernetes integrations |
Helm - Kubernetes Package Manager
| Repo | helm/helm |
| Stars | 29.4k |
| Language | Go |
| Good First Issues | 14 open |
| CNCF | Graduated |
| What it does | Package manager for Kubernetes -- define, install, upgrade apps with charts |
| Why contribute | Widely used, CNCF graduated, strong community. You already know Helm from CKA work. |
| Entry points | CLI improvements, chart validation, bug fixes, docs |
Loki - Log Aggregation
| Repo | grafana/loki |
| Stars | 27.5k |
| Language | Go |
| Good First Issues | 12 open |
| CNCF | Incubating |
| What it does | Like Prometheus but for logs. Horizontally-scalable log aggregation system. |
| Why contribute | Grafana-backed, active community, Hacktoberfest participant. |
| Entry points | LogQL improvements, storage backends, bug fixes |
LazyGit - Terminal UI for Git
| Repo | jesseduffield/lazygit |
| Stars | 71.4k |
| Language | Go |
| Good First Issues | 11 open |
| What it does | Beautiful terminal UI for git commands |
| Why contribute | Massive popularity. TUI development in Go (tview/tcell). Practical daily-use tool. |
| Entry points | UI improvements, keybinding features, bug fixes |
Kubernetes - Container Orchestration
| Repo | kubernetes/kubernetes |
| Stars | 120k |
| Language | Go |
| Good First Issues | 11 open |
| CNCF | Graduated |
| What it does | The container orchestration platform |
| Why contribute | The biggest cloud-native project. Resume gold. Structured SIG-based contribution. |
| Entry points | SIG-specific issues, test improvements, kubectl enhancements, docs |
OPA Gatekeeper - Policy Engine
| Repo | open-policy-agent/gatekeeper |
| Stars | 4.1k |
| Language | Go |
| Good First Issues | 9 open |
| CNCF | Graduated (OPA) |
| What it does | Policy engine for Kubernetes admission control using OPA/Rego |
| Why contribute | Smaller codebase, easier to get PRs reviewed. Policy-as-code is growing fast. |
| Entry points | Constraint templates, policy library, tests, docs |
Trivy - Vulnerability Scanner
| Repo | aquasecurity/trivy |
| Stars | 31.2k |
| Language | Go |
| Good First Issues | 5 open |
| CNCF | Incubating |
| What it does | Scans containers, filesystems, repos, and cloud infra for vulnerabilities and misconfigs |
| Why contribute | Security-focused, Hacktoberfest participant, Aqua-backed. |
| Entry points | Scanner rules, new detectors, docs, test coverage |
OpenTofu - Open Source Terraform
| Repo | opentofu/opentofu |
| Stars | 27.7k |
| Language | Go |
| Good First Issues | 5 open |
| What it does | Community-driven fork of Terraform. Fully open source IaC tool. |
| Why contribute | High visibility, Terraform-compatible, growing fast since BSL license change. |
| Entry points | Provider improvements, CLI features, bug fixes, docs |
Intermediate (Few or No Labeled Issues, But Welcoming)
These are major projects that accept contributions but require more initiative to find work.
LazyDocker - Terminal UI for Docker
| Repo | jesseduffield/lazydocker |
| Stars | 49.4k |
| Language | Go |
| Good First Issues | 2 open |
| What it does | Terminal UI for Docker and Docker Compose management |
| Why contribute | Same author as LazyGit. Huge user base. |
K9s - Kubernetes TUI
| Repo | derailed/k9s |
| Stars | 32.7k |
| Language | Go |
| Good First Issues | 1 open |
| What it does | Terminal UI for Kubernetes cluster management |
| Why contribute | Maintainer actively needs help. Sponsorship-funded. Daily-use K8s tool. |
cilium/ebpf - Pure Go eBPF Library
| Repo | cilium/ebpf |
| Stars | 7.5k |
| Language | Go |
| Good First Issues | 2 open |
| What it does | Pure Go library for reading, modifying, and loading eBPF programs |
| Why contribute | Bridge between Go and kernel-level networking. Unique skill. |
Advanced (Large Codebases, No Hand-Holding)
High-impact projects but expect contributors to be self-directed.
FRP - Fast Reverse Proxy
| Repo | fatedier/frp |
| Stars | 104k |
| Language | Go |
| Good First Issues | 0 |
| What it does | Expose local servers behind NAT/firewall to the internet |
| Why contribute | Deep networking + Go. Proxy protocols, tunneling, NAT traversal. |
| Challenge | Single maintainer, no labeled issues, email-based communication. |
Traefik - Cloud Native Edge Router
| Repo | traefik/traefik |
| Stars | 61.4k |
| Language | Go |
| Good First Issues | 0 |
| What it does | Modern HTTP reverse proxy and load balancer for microservices |
Caddy - Web Server with Automatic HTTPS
| Repo | caddyserver/caddy |
| Stars | 69.5k |
| Language | Go |
| Good First Issues | 0 |
| What it does | Fast, extensible web server with automatic HTTPS |
Prometheus - Monitoring and Alerting
| Repo | prometheus/prometheus |
| Stars | 62.5k |
| Language | Go |
| CNCF | Graduated |
| What it does | Time-series monitoring and alerting toolkit |
Hugo - Static Site Generator
| Repo | gohugoio/hugo |
| Stars | 86.4k |
| Language | Go |
| Good First Issues | 0 |
| What it does | Fastest static site generator, used by thousands of sites |
Gin - HTTP Web Framework
| Repo | gin-gonic/gin |
| Stars | 87.9k |
| Language | Go |
| Good First Issues | 0 |
| What it does | High-performance HTTP web framework |