Open source success is often measured in commits and pull requests, but long-term sustainability depends equally on non-code contributions. Documentation, community support, advocacy, and knowledge sharing are critical yet undervalued components of thriving ecosystems.

This lightning talk highlights how non-code contributions shape large-scale projects like OpenSearch. Through a real journey from user to contributor and community advocate, it demonstrates how individuals can meaningfully participate without writing production code.

The talk includes a practical example of contributing to Apache Lucene, showing how small improvements in documentation and community engagement create real impact.

Attendees will leave with clear, actionable ways to start contributing immediately and understand how diverse contributions strengthen open source communities.