GSoC 2026: Join the Processing Foundation as a Summer of Code Contributor!

Summer of Code
21

Hey @kit @clairep94

Been following this thread for a while, .

Two ideas from the project list caught my eye: E2E Testing for the p5.js Web Editor and Extend Tests in Processing4. Testing infra is unglamorous work but it’s the kind of thing that keeps a codebase from quietly rotting, especially when the editor is mid-refactor with the TS migration and self-hosting changes. Silent regressions during migrations are a special kind of pain, and I’ve dealt with enough of them to care about this deeply.

For Processing4, I’d rather scope something realistic and actually deliver it than write a 40-page fantasy proposal. I’m familiar with Java testing and know that extending tests in a mature codebase means understanding the existing infra first, not just slapping on new test files.

I’ve already started thinking through rough timelines and milestones for both what’s realistic to deliver within 175H, what order to tackle things in and where the actual blockers would be.

Also been contributing to the Processing Foundation repos already, and Processing is used in coursework at my college so I’ve seen both sides, as a contributor and as someone watching students depend on this ecosystem daily.

Looking forward to when applications open. Happy to discuss scope for either project in the meantime.

1 Like
22

Hi everyone! Very exciting news: as @Samarth wrote above, we have been selected as a GSoC Mentor Org :tada:

I’ve updated the top post in this thread with a checklist for starting to prepare your application. Last year this thread has a lot of very important information and excellent questions, but it got long - so I will keep coming back here to respond regularly, and the most important new info I will always put in the post at the top.

And now, I’ll try to answer most recent questions. If I miss anything please ping here. (If you reach out somewhere else, it may take longer for me to respond, but I will be back here every few days!)

@aashishpanthi, who is working on the Nepali translations (thank you!) asks:

The contribution docs are very long. It will take me more time to translate. For now, can you please review my two pull requests that are currently open?

This part of why PF does not require merged Pull Requests. Completing work takes a while, and review may also take some time. Thank you for the work and the patience!

@Samarth asks:

I’ll be drafting a proposal, if you’d help me refine it, it will be highly appreciated.

I will be as available as I can on this thread. We will also have a possibility for individual feedback: see the top post in this thread - I updated it with info. A sign-up sheet will be available on March 15th.

Until then, you are welcome to ask public questions here, and get to know the community in other online spaces (GitHub, Discord).

@Piyushrathoree asks:

is there any community meet going to happen in between the project discussion period of GSoC 2026? I would love to connect and discuss about the projects, Btw I’m interested in the P5.js editor project (E2E Testing for the p5.js Web Editor).

Great question!

For community meetup: that’s a cool idea, could you share more on this thread what you’d like to see? Or an example of something another org has done you’d like to see us also do? If there’s some interest in addition to you, let’s make it happen! Also @avinxshKD23 and @aash.u7707 - you both have clear interests already, which is great to see! - if you have ideas for a possible community meetup that would be useful, please feel free to make some suggestions. You’re welcome to start a thread about that project on the Discourse, but keep in mind I will only respond on this main thread (this is because I also have other responsibilities, including reviewing PRs).

Additionally, for technical topics meetups: please check “events” in the Discord servers for Processing and p5.js. Both have upcoming events. For the p5.js editor, I will post it by the end of the week, but there will be a call you can join to get an intro to open work on the p5.js Web Editor. If you cannot join at the time, I take notes in the “chat” of that event, and make sure any important resources are shared.

I am so excited to see all the great work that many of you are already doing, and looking forward to the proposals!

Last year, it was a selective process with many strong proposals (out of ~150 proposals, 3 were selected). In my professional life, I have submitted many applications for projects and jobs that were rejected; I know how it feels. So, I very much hope that even if, in a few months, your proposal is not selected, that this process overall can still be useful for you in your career, and be good practice, with community and mentor feedback, to deeply research and present a technical project.

We are very happy for you all to join the contributor community, and I am sincerely wish each of you success in your goals! I’ll be back in 2-3 days to respond to questions here - or see you on Discord:)

Best,
Kit

4 Likes
23

Thanks @kit, glad to hear the org got accepted

The community meetup idea sounds useful. Something simple like a short call where mentors walk through project scope and current state would help a lot. It would save people from guessing what has already been tried or what is out of scope. Even 30 minutes per project area would be valuable. I’ll definitely join the p5.js Web Editor call when it’s posted.

Also I’ll keep an eye on the top post for the sign-up sheet and proposal template. Meanwhile, I’ll keep working on my recent PRs and continue exploring the Processing4 test infra and the editor repo before finalizing proposal scope.

1 Like
24

Hey everyone, just a quick intro. I am Divyansh and I will be mentoring Continued Development of Translation Tracker this year. You can go through the brief of the same here. Please feel free to experience the tool yourself to have better understanding and goal of the project done last year and if you have any doubts/potential ideas try to share it in this thread only as it can help others too! Cheers :grinning_face:

6 Likes
25

Hi @divyansh013, great to see you back!

We’ve interacted a bit on GitHub issues earlier, so it’s nice to see you mentoring this. With GSoC coming up, I’m excited about the Continued Development of the Translation Tracker this year. I’ve been contributing across the p5.js ecosystem lately and have gone through the brief as well, really looking forward to being involved and helping out however I can.

1 Like
26

Glad to hear that org got accepted, Thanks @kit for your guidance! Looking forward to community meetup it would be a great help for understanding the project scope better and what improvements or enhancement we can make to improve it,

I am very interested in the Translation Tracker infrastructure. I have been exploring the repo, and keep exploring/testing it while working on my PRs. I’ll make my proposal based of proposal template (looking forward to the template in top post), and would let it reviewed to ensure it aligns with the project’s goals. Thanks!

1 Like
27

Hi @divyansh013 I’m excited about the continued development of translation tracker,

I have been going through the repo and testing/exploring it locally. I would love to expand the tracker’s scope to other core folders, implementing automated stub generation to lower the barrier for new translators. I am still testing/exploring it, will share my queries/ideas in the thread. Looking forword to contribute and being involved! Thanks!

2 Likes
28

Hi @kit

My name is Harshil Tewari I’ve read the Contributor guidelines and have understood the github workflow for making PRs,joined the Discord channel and have also polished my JavaScript conecpts,but it is my first time contributing to an OpenSource program and I really want to contribute to the processing foundation. It would be very helpful if you would suggest me some areas that I can work on as a beginner.

1 Like
29

@divyansh013 Would it make sense to have a dedicated thread for the Translation Tracker project so that discussions and technical ideas around it can stay focused? I feel it could help keep things organized as more people start sharing their thoughts. Thanks :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like
30

Hi @kit @divyansh013 and Hi everyone! :waving_hand:

I’m Crosse, a CS student interested in the Translation Tracker project for GSoC 2026. I’m really excited about this project because I’ve experienced firsthand how language barriers limit access to tech education. My friend who speaks Spanish struggled with English only coding tutorials, and tools like this could have helped them learn so much faster. Background-wise, I’ve built full-stack apps (Django + React) including a healthcare job board and a lecture transcription tool, so I’m comfortable with JavaScript, automation workflows, and building developer tools. I’m new to Astro and GitHub Actions but excited to learn. Over the next few weeks I’ll be exploring the p5.js-website repo and the existing translation tracker to better understand the current workflow and pain points. I’m also planning to make some p5.js sketches to get more familiar with the community.

Quick questions:

  • For someone new to the translation workflow, what’s the best way to understand the current translator experience? Should I try going through the process of translating a small file, or are there documented pain points I should focus on first?
  • What’s the best place to ask technical questions about the translation tracker implementation?

Looking forward to contributing and learning from everyone here!

1 Like
32

Hi @StarGrazer , The translator tracker github action is not about translating the files itself rather it focuses on tech debt regarding pending translations and notifying relevant stewards about the same. Best way to explore the same is running the action locally and try creating some issues on your fork.

About the doubts part, you are always welcome to post the same here be it technical or non-technical

1 Like
33

Hi @aash.u7707 , I am not sure how feasible it will be create a project specific group , will require other people’s opinion too on this. However feel free to post them here and if lot of doubts get acculumated and unansswered we can schedule a discord voice/ thread or some sort of QnA for this. Thanks!

2 Likes
34

Hii I am new in Contribution and struggling to learn the codebase of processing code base and It would be helpfull to guide me in contribution.

1 Like
35

Hi @kit

I would just like to ask if you would consider a proposal that would use the processing sketch books only , in java or is there any particular software or tech stack we have to use and would using processing sketches alone to create my project hurt my changes of being selected

1 Like
36

Hi everyone! I just wanted to say I’m really excited to meet and work with all of you! Welcome!

Also: we have a weekly casual meetup that I had to cancel this week, but it will continue next week. It’s on Tuesdays 12pm GMT:-5:00

Invite to the event on the Processing Discord server

2 Likes
37

Hi @kit @divyansh013 and everyone! :waving_hand:

I’m Manaswi, interested in the “Continued Development of Translation Tracker” project for GSoC 2026.

I’ve spent the last couple of days exploring the Translation Tracker codebase in the p5.js-website repo. While going through the code I noticed that when missing translations are detected, there doesn’t seem to be an automated way to create the initial translation files, translators appear to need to create these manually. I wanted to check if my understanding is correct!

Based on those observations I built a small proof of concept stub file generator locally that automatically creates template files at the correct paths, pre-filled with the English content and clear instructions for translators. I tested it across all content types and it identified 3442 missing translation files.

Before opening a PR I wanted to get feedback on whether this is the right direction for the project!

A couple of quick questions:

  • Is stub file generation still a priority for this cycle?
  • Are there specific content types you’d want prioritized
    first?

Looking forward to contributing and learning from everyone
here!

1 Like
38

Hi everyone! It’s been wonderful to meet many of you over on GitHub, Discord, and of course here :sunflower: and thanks for your patience, it’s been a busy start to the week.

First off, the questions about meetups! This was a great idea. Please indicate if you’d be free during the below times for a casual meetup to get to know each other, go through the project list ideas, and so on:

  • Monday March 2, 2026 1pm-2pm CET (Berlin time)
  • Monday March 2, 2026 2pm-3pm CET (Berlin time)
  • Monday March 2, 2026 3pm-4pm CET (Berlin time)
  • Thursday March 12, 2025 1pm-2pm CET (Berlin time)
  • Thursday March 12, 2025 2pm-3pm CET (Berlin time)
  • Thursday March 12, 2025 3pm-4pm CET (Berlin time)
  • Thursday March 12, 2026 5pm-6pm CET (Berlin time)
  • Thursday March 12, 2026 6pm-7pm CET (Berlin time)
  • Thursday March 12, 2026 7pm-8pm CET (Berlin time)
0 voters

I’ll add a link to either a zoom chat or a Discord event (if someone really prefers one or the other please let me know). I’ll also check with mentors if they have time. We may run one or two of these, not all three, and I’ll try to accommodate the widest possible group in scheduling. Keep in mind that most mentors and maintainers are volunteers so their availability may be limited, but I will do my best to address any doubts.

As @divyansh013 said: “if you have any doubts/potential ideas try to share it in this thread only as it can help others too!” - sharing on this thread, and keeping up with it, is very much recommended.

In addition to this general GSoC meetup, I think some upcoming casual meetups on the p5.js and processing Discord servers related to specific projects might be useful. In these, you can meet some of the maintainers working on these projects and get help with technical challenges in contribution.

And now, the questions :sun:

Tips for Beginners

@harshil asks:

but it is my first time contributing to an OpenSource program and I really want to contribute to the processing foundation. It would be very helpful if you would suggest me some areas that I can work on as a beginner.

Welcome! If you don’t have time to join any of the p5.js calls (p5.js is in JavaScript, Processing is in Java), then you can still check the notes in the “chat” of the voice channel after. I will always post important highlights and resources there.

Please have a look at the “Application preparation checklist” in the top of this thread. It has many suggestions for what to do as a beginner to open source wanting to apply.

@Himanshu asks:

Hii I am new in Contribution and struggling to learn the codebase of processing code base and It would be helpfull to guide me in contribution.

Welcome! Do you mean the Processing4 Java codebase? You can start with the contribution guide here: processing4/CONTRIBUTING.md at main · processing/processing4 · GitHub

Or do you mean another project?

@Behlool asks:

I would just like to ask if you would consider a proposal that would use the processing sketch books only , in java or is there any particular software or tech stack we have to use and would using processing sketches alone to create my project hurt my changes of being selected

Each project idea on the ideas list is related to a different repository (p5.js, p5.js-website, processing4, and so on.) The tech stack will depend on the project. Can you describe a bit more what kind of project you have in mind that uses only sketches? You don’t have to go into details, but maybe just to clarify what you mean?

Translation Tracker Project

@aash.u7707 asks:

Would it make sense to have a dedicated thread for the Translation Tracker project so that discussions and technical ideas around it can stay focused? I feel it could help keep things organized as more people start sharing their thoughts.

I would suggest keeping it in one thread. I know it gets busy, but there are very many places across GitHub and Discord that for GSoC specific questions (which can be time-sensitive!) it can be better to keep it in 1 place. Although it’s less organized per topic, there’s less chance that an important question gets missed. I saw already @divyansh013 has been replying here; I leave it up to him in case at some point he’d want to split out a separate thread or channel if enough things get accumulated.

@StarGrazer also asks about the translation tracker - +1 what Divyansh answered. The best place to start is experimenting with your own fork.

@manaswi asks:

I’ve spent the last couple of days exploring the Translation Tracker codebase in the p5.js-website repo. While going through the code I noticed that when missing translations are detected, there doesn’t seem to be an automated way to create the initial translation files, translators appear to need to create these manually. I wanted to check if my understanding is correct!

That’s correct! You local experiment sounds like a great place to start, as well!

translators appear to need to create these manually … I tested it across all content types and it identified 3442 missing translation files. … Is stub file generation still a priority for this cycle?

Minor: note that the existing tracker does have a CLI utility to identify existing gaps. Proposals should generally build on existing work as much as possible. Although stub files can be very helpful, generating 3k prefilled English stub files could also be unhelpful. Right now, missing translations default to English. Without pre-filled stub files, it is very easy to see and bridge the gaps. The stub file topic is more about when those files should be created to best support the translator.

Your approach includes reasonable possible directions for next work. A strong proposal would be based on on research (in p5.js-website or looking at other examples of relevant translation processes) and make a recommendation of what should be the priority, given the state of the tool, its goal, the current challenges, and your unique skillset and capability!

I hope I got all the open questions so far. I will be back in less time, 1-2 days, and I apologize for the delay in this answer. If I missed your Q please feel free to @ me below:)

Best,
Kit

1 Like
40

@kit As you know, I have been deeply involved across the ecosystem and have spent some good time understanding the Translation Tracker’s current structure. I am continuing to experiment locally and will share focused technical observations as I refine my thoughts, thanks!

1 Like
41

@kit I was thinking about using the processing4 sketch books to create an interactive fluid simulations to help students understand physics, specifically newtons laws of motions by being able to see the forces and etc.

1 Like
42

Hi everyone!

:spiral_calendar:
Our first GSoC meetup is on Monday March 2nd, 2026, 3pm-4pm CET (Berlin time). Mentors Diya and Claire will join! It will be on the Processing Foundation discord server. Here is the invite link :sunflower:

Don’t have time to join? No problem, I’ll share major highlights and important resources here. Also, see my previous message for links to other events - or look for “Events” in p5.js and Processing Discord servers.

Also, here is some advice from Divyansh, Kamakshi, and Ego - 2025 GSoC contributors - on writing a successful application:

And to answer @Behlool , who asks:

I was thinking about using the processing4 sketch books to create an interactive fluid simulations to help students understand physics, specifically newtons laws of motions by being able to see the forces and etc.

This year we welcome custom proposals. So if you propose a stand-alone resource, it is possible! With this kind of proposal, it is especially important to research what already exists, and to think about how the resource can be actively engaging the community. (For example, there’s the Nature of Code book that touches similar topics - maybe it can be an inspiration.) Many past GSoC projects also proposed stand-alone resources, so I’d also encourage you to check past project writeups for a sense of how big this kind of project can be.

As with all project proposals, whether it’s more custom or more based on the ideas list: using a perspective, experience, or skill that is unique to you will likely make the proposal much stronger.

Best,
Kit

3 Likes