My Outreachy Contribution Journey with Fedora

My Outreachy Contribution Portfolio – Fedora Project

I'm Akriti Sengar. I applied to Outreachy 2026 for the project: Develop a SLM/LLM using Ramalama RAG based off Fedora RPM Packaging Guidelines.

I had no prior experience with Fedora before this. Everything here is what I actually did during the contribution phase.

Contributions

1. Fedora Account Setup

• Issue
• Got my FAS account running — SSH keys, GPG keys, the full setup. First time doing any of this. Took longer than expected but I got it working.

2. Personal Blog

• Blog Homepage
• Set up a blog specifically to document this process. Partly because Outreachy asked for it, partly because writing things down forces me to actually understand them.

3. Blog Post – Fedora in My Own Words

• Blog Post
• Wrote about what Fedora actually is — not copy-pasted from docs, but how I understood it after reading through everything. Editions, community structure, the Four Foundations. It's a beginner's take, not an expert one.

4. Blog Post – Getting Started with Outreachy

• Post Links
• Wrote a guide for people who are where I was three weeks ago — confused, hesitant, not sure if they're "qualified enough." I covered project selection, how to ask questions, why small contributions matter, and why waiting to feel ready is a trap.

5. Mastodon Post

• Blog Post
• Shared my Fedora blog publicly. Small thing, but it's part of how open source communities actually spread information.

The contribution I'm most proud of

The Outreachy getting started guide.

Not because it's technically impressive — it isn't. But because I wrote it while I was still figuring things out myself. I wasn't summarizing advice from somewhere else. I was writing down what was actually hard, what actually helped, and what I wish someone had told me. That felt worth doing.

Honest gaps

Everything here is communication and documentation work. No code contributions yet. That's where I need to go next — getting into the actual packaging guidelines and understanding the technical layer of the project.