Developer’s guide to contributing code to Kafka

Contributing code to an open source project can sometimes feel really difficult. The process is often different for each project and requires you to develop, build and test your change and then it needs to be accepted by the project. For Kafka, certain types of changes also require you to go through the Kafka Improvement Proposal (KIP) process.

In this talk, we will cover in detail the process to contribute code to Apache Kafka, from setting up a development environment, to building the code, running tests and opening a PR. We will also look at the KIP process, describe what each section of the document is for, the importance of finding consensus, and what happens when it gets voted. We will share, from a committers point of view, what we look for when reviewing a KIP and give some tips to help you get through the process successfully.

At the end of this talk, you will be able to get started contributing code to Kafka and understand how to get from idea, to KIP, to released feature.