Open-source, in the open

Field notes from the open-source trenches

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A modern blog where I document my open-source contributions — how I approached each issue, what I learned, and the code that shipped.

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ConvexConvexTypescriptRust

My Pull Request Is Still Open. My Code Already Shipped in Convex.

I've been reading Convex docs for three years — once, memorably, during a lecture. Then they open-sourced the backend. Nine lines later my fix for the missing URL.canParse() is live in main, and my PR is still open. Neither is a mistake.

Aug 5, 20266 min read

Latest posts

My Pull Request Is Still Open. My Code Already Shipped in Convex.Convex
Convex
Typescript
Rust

My Pull Request Is Still Open. My Code Already Shipped in Convex.

I've been reading Convex docs for three years — once, memorably, during a lecture. Then they open-sourced the backend. Nine lines later my fix for the missing URL.canParse() is live in main, and my PR is still open. Neither is a mistake.

Aug 5, 20266 min
The Button That Lied: Fixing Eclipse Theia's Stale ToolbarEclipse Theia
Eclipse Theia
TypeScript

The Button That Lied: Fixing Eclipse Theia's Stale Toolbar

Eclipse Theia had a toolbar button that rendered disabled but worked the instant you clicked it. The bug wasn't in the command — it was a re-render that never ran. Here's how I traced it to two reactive signals a subclass forgot to wire up, and fixed it in @theia/toolbar.

Aug 5, 20264 min
The Comma That Leaked Styles Across an Entire IDEEclipse Theia
Eclipse Theia
CSS
Frontend

The Comma That Leaked Styles Across an Entire IDE

A "good first issue" in Eclipse Theia looked like a one-line CSS fix — until I traced why three headings were quietly restyling the entire IDE. A short story about comma-separated selectors, global-scope leaks, and a PR that landed in Theia 1.74.0.

Aug 4, 20263 min
402 Deletions, Zero Additions: Fixing Etro's Docs by Deleting ThemEtro
Typescript
Etro
Refactoring

402 Deletions, Zero Additions: Fixing Etro's Docs by Deleting Them

issue #349 said Etro's docs wouldn't build. The right fix wasn't to repair the tooling — it was to delete it. Here's how a 402-line negative diff closed the bug.

Aug 4, 20264 min
How I Taught Voiden's CLI to Read YAML Env Files — My First Open-Source ContributionVoiden
Voiden
Typescript

How I Taught Voiden's CLI to Read YAML Env Files — My First Open-Source Contribution

My first open-source contribution: Voiden's runner claimed to support YAML env files but silently broke on them. Here's how I traced the bug, fixed it cleanly, and what shipping it taught me about testing and reading code.

Aug 3, 20264 min

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