February 02, 2026
The Kotlin Foundation is launching the Kotlin Ecosystem Mentorship program.
Many developers want to contribute to Kotlin-related open-source projects but don’t know where to start or feel intimidated about contributing. At the same time, maintainers are overwhelmed. This program is designed to fix that.
How it works:
We pair an experienced Kotlin open-source maintainer (mentor) with someone making their first meaningful contribution (mentee). Mentors guide mentees through the full journey: setting up the project, understanding the workflow, choosing a reasonable first task, reviewing changes, and giving feedback until the contribution is merged.
What counts as a contribution?
It’s not restricted to just code. Documentation, tooling, examples, tutorials, and other project improvements are welcome – as long as the mentor considers the contribution meaningful.
Pilot details:
• Timeline: February 16 – April 16 • Mentors: ~30–60 minutes/week • Mentees: ~2–4 hours/week (depending on the task) • Pilot size: ~10 mentor-mentee pairs
Perks:
Every pair that successfully merges a meaningful contribution will receive some Kotlin swag. One randomly selected finishing pair will win a trip to KotlinConf 2026 in Munich.
If you maintain a Kotlin-related open-source project and want to mentor a new contributor, we’d love to have you join.