About Me
I'm Guan-Ming (Wesley) Chiu, currently pursuing a Master's degree in EECS at National Taiwan University. I'm passionate about open source contributions and interested in both frontend/backend development and data engineering.
Why Apache Airflow?
Before contributing to Apache Airflow, I didn't even know about the project. It was through articles from opensource4you that I started paying attention to it. Later, I discovered that Airflow is an Apache Software Foundation Top Level Project used by many well-known companies. It seemed interesting, and since I was familiar with both React and Python, I decided to start contributing!
Contribution Statistics (2025/04/01 ~ 2025/09/30)
| Category | Count |
|---|---|
| Pull Requests (Merged) | 139 |
| Reviewed PRs (Merged) | 66 |
| Contribution Rank | #34 |
| Time Investment | ~3-4 hours per day |
On 2025/09/30, I received an invitation from the Airflow PMC to become an Airflow Committer!
Journey
What I Gained
- Technical Skills
- Writing code in large projects isn't just about solving immediate problems. I also needed to consider long-term maintainability, backward compatibility, and performance impact. I had to understand various design patterns and system design principles. Since many people and companies use Airflow, small changes can affect many users, requiring careful consideration of details. This practical understanding of software engineering is something I could never learn from side projects or school assignments alone.
- I could observe how different experts handle problems and implement solutions by simply opening PRs. Although the context was overwhelming initially, gradually understanding their approaches taught me that great developers consider many details and write clean code. This has been incredibly valuable for learning.
- Communication
- Beyond coding, learning how to clearly explain design motivations in PRs, how to give constructive reviews, and how to find consensus when there are disagreements is sometimes harder than coding itself. Good communication makes discussions more efficient and creates a positive community atmosphere.
- Friendships
- Besides skill improvement, I've made interesting friends through open source. We discuss technology, share what we've been working on, and joke about code reviews. Especially with the opensource4you community, everyone is incredibly helpful. Whenever I had questions, someone would help, and we'd discuss implementation together. They'd notify us about meta-issues we could work on. This feeling of working together towards a common goal while having fun is truly wonderful!
How to Start Contributing to Apache Airflow?
- Recommended Reading:
- Read Documentation: Airflow's contribution guide is very clear.
- Familiarize with the Environment: Use
breezeto set up the development environment and run basic tests. - Start with Simple Issues: Look for good first issue labels, small bug fixes, or translation maintenance.
- Write Good PR Descriptions: Clearly explain
Why / Howto help reviewers understand. - Learn from Others' PRs: Observe how others solve problems and communicate. If someone abandoned a halfway-done PR, you can continue their work. Or if you're familiar with a particular area, you can try giving reviews.
Big Thanks
- Chia-Ping, who founded opensource4you. Without it, I might never have known about Airflow or met such interesting open source friends.
- All Airflow PMC Members and Committers who provided guidance through reviews and discussions, especially Brent, Pierre, Jens, Jarek, and Elad.
- Wei Lee and Jason for their articles and insights that helped me quickly understand Airflow. They also helped me review most of my Python code (I'm really a Python beginner!).
- Roy Lee for working on frontend PRs together and having fun. You're next!