How I Got Started With Contributing to Firefox

I admit, I used to think contributing to Firefox was basically impossible, especially as someone who didn’t yet know Rust or C++. And even if I overcame this hurdle, I thought it was hard to get set up, difficult to find bugs that are well-scoped to what I can actually accomplish given my skillset, and challenging to understand the complex codebases that would be typical of large software projects. But I wanted to help. And after hacking Google Chrome, I realized that maybe I could, or at least I could try.

After scouring codetribute.mozilla.org I finally found something that fit me. While Firefox is written in C++ and Rust, much of the browser user interface is written in good old HTML, Javascript, and CSS−all things I was familiar with. Furthermore, since Firefox code wasn’t hosted on Github, there were many more good first bugs to choose from (probably because it’ll be harder for someone to include on their Github profile or resume).

After searching for hours, I finally found a bug that was easy enough to get started with. It was a bug that involved a modal button being cut off. Debugging the issue, it was a problem with its flexbox layout and I was able to fix it in a single line of code.

From there, I’ve progressed onto more challenging bugs like implementing a feature where you can open the context menu on a phone number and copy the number or fixing a bug in detecting urls in plain text link selections.

Don’t get me wrong, it was hard to get started and still took time to learn the Firefox codebase. It took weeks of head-scratching, scouring searchfox.org, and asking plenty of beginner questions on Matrix and Phabricator. And though I’ve quickly gotten better at figuring out what I need to do in each bug, and gleaned some of the tribal knowledge from my interactions with the more senior devs during code reviews, it’s still a struggle.

But I’ve realized the biggest challenge is overcoming the arbitrary limits that our minds set for ourselves. We may think something is impossible, and maybe it’s true. But to never try as a result of that hypothesis is to deny ourselves the possibility that we may actually be able achieve something. And just like people should be innocent until proven guilty, I think it’s worthwhile to consider challenges as possible until proven impossible.

While I ultimately hope to become a Core Contributor to Firefox, I still have a long way to go. I know the journey may be difficult, just as it has been thus far. But the philosophy that keeps me going is knowing the people who achieve the impossible are the people delusional enough to try regardless. And regardless of what happens, I’m happy to keep deluding myself trying, and hopefully you would too.