How to attract AI bots to your open source project (nesbitt.io)

by zdw 30 comments 183 points
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30 comments

[−] gardnr 54d ago
The first three recommendations seemed weird but alright. Then, it just gets more hilarious and bizarre as it goes on:

- Disable branch protection

- Remove type annotations and tests

- Include a node_modules directory

Then, I went back to read the preamble. I can be a bit slow on the uptake.

[−] herpdyderp 54d ago
Tbf I read the preamble first and I’m still convinced the recommendations are serious.
[−] sobrey 54d ago
The fact that it's written by an LLM is cherry on the cake.
[−] gerdesj 54d ago
The entire article is a parody. It took me roughly 10s to notice. To be fair, your comment gave me a head start 8)
[−] skyberrys 54d ago
I think it's a well written bit of knowledge, even though it is written by an AI and posted by a human as intended satire. It's full of ideas, I hope the author does check back in and reports on how many AI PR's come out of it.
[−] TZubiri 54d ago

>Committing node_modules to your repository increases the surface area available for automated improvement by several orders of magnitude. A typical Express application vendors around 30,000 files. Each of these is a potential target for typo fixes

I'm not sure what layer of irony I'm in, but goddamn committing node_modules sounds awful regardless of AI.

[−] charcircuit 54d ago
I don't think any of these will work because AI agents are not checking this data before working on the project. What you actually need to do is proper marketing and creating a funnel to attract AI agents to your project. The lack of contributions is from having a lack of funnel for entities to discover the project than metrics like open issues per contributor.
[−] shevy-java 54d ago
I kind of filter away AI as much as I can these days. To me AI is mostly either spam or a waste of my time. If I want to interact with other humans, why would I allow AI to jump in and interfere? That makes no sense.
[−] sobrey 54d ago
I missed the satire tag at the start and the first few paragraph seemed genuine. But it gets better as it goes.
[−] sharpshadow 54d ago
Interesting concept on harvesting free computation. I wonder how far this can be taken. To append the list communication on social platforms towards the bots could leave some leads.
[−] VadimPR 54d ago
Semi-related: we use bounties in Mudlet to pay contributors for tackling features the core team doesn't have bandwidth for - and that is certainly a great way to attract AI bots.
[−] scotty79 53d ago
Today it's a joke, but in a year or two it's gonna be genuine strategy to avoid paying yourself for all the inference your open source project needs. Tokens are gonna be worth a lot. Event today there are already programmers who are burning more money for tokens than their salary is and it's still worth for their employers. Open source projects with shoestring budgets won't be able to afford that.
[−] cyanydeez 54d ago
I think any project being swamped by AI Because its an AI tool needs to auto close all issues and select ones the project actually cares about. That way, they either go away or help focus on real concerns.

Rather than just have thousands dead cat box issues.

[−] aarjaneiro 54d ago
I mean... it's satire but a giant agent honeypot in and of itself would be useful. Creators of PRs for such a project could then be blacklisted elsewhere.
[−] travisdrake 54d ago
This should be a badge on GH that get passed around like a curse.
[−] axegon_ 54d ago
I moved away from github because of all the slop that was shoved down my throat(along with privacy). I want less slop, not more.