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Awesome DDEV Contributors

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Randy Fay

November 30, 2025 4 min read

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Open source software thrives on community collaboration. DDEV exists because developers worldwide contribute their time, expertise, and passion to make local development better for everyone. This post celebrates the contributors who make DDEV possible and explores what makes our open-source community special.

The Power of Open Source

Open source isn’t just about free software—it’s about community-driven development where anyone can contribute, improve, and shape the tools they use daily. DDEV exemplifies this model:

  • Over 3,300 stars on GitHub
  • 680+ forks
  • Active development from contributors across the globe
  • A welcoming community in Discord with thousands of members

Every feature, bugfix, and documentation improvement represents someone investing their time to make DDEV better for everyone.

Core Contributors Making a Difference

While many people contribute to DDEV, some stand out for their consistent, impactful work:

tyler36

A DDEV organization member, tyler36 has contributed 40+ pull requests spanning documentation improvements, bugfixes, and feature enhancements. Recent contributions include:

  • Fixing CakePHP locale handling (#7653)
  • Adding database pager support for better CLI output (#6842)
  • Improving Laravel and nginx configuration (#6775)
  • Countless documentation updates keeping DDEV’s docs accurate and helpful

tyler36’s contributions demonstrate how fixing small issues and improving documentation creates enormous value for the entire community.

AkibaAT

AkibaAT tackles challenging infrastructure and feature work. Recent contributions include:

  • Integrating mkcert as a library (#7555)
  • Implementing the ddev add-on search command (#7554)
  • Using native ARM builders for Docker images (#7553)
  • Fixing Xdebug trigger handling (#7216)

This work on build tools, add-on discovery, and developer experience improvements benefits every DDEV user.

rpkoller

rpkoller, a DDEV organization member, focuses on testing and project type support. Contributions include:

  • Improving bats tests for Ibexa, TYPO3, Drupal CMS, and Magento 2
  • Adding Statamic quickstart tests (#7116)
  • Enhancing xhgui user experience (#7205)
  • Maintaining and updating quickstart guides

This testing work ensures DDEV works reliably across different CMS platforms and project types.

Extension and Add-on Maintainers

DDEV’s ecosystem extends far beyond the core project through extensions and add-ons:

VS Code Extension

The DDEV Manager VS Code extension provides a centralized interface for managing DDEV projects. Created and maintained by Biati Digital, this extension became part of the official DDEV organization at v1.3.3, with additional contributions from tyler36.

Add-on Ecosystem

The DDEV add-on registry features official and community-maintained add-ons:

Official Add-ons:

Community Add-ons:

  • Metadrop - Multiple add-ons for Drupal development
  • Lullabot - ddev-playwright for Playwright test integration
  • OpenForge Project - Frontend and build-focused tools

These add-ons demonstrate how the community extends DDEV’s capabilities to meet specific workflow needs.

Governance and Sustainability

DDEV’s sustainability depends not just on code contributors, but on people committed to its organizational health. The DDEV Foundation is evolving its governance structure:

  • Randy Fay - Lead maintainer, leading operational and strategic direction
  • Stas Zhuk - Co-maintainer with full GitHub organization control, ensuring continuity
  • Mike Anello - Board member and Treasurer for the DDEV Foundation
  • Andrew Berry - Providing governance advice

DDEV’s 2025 plans include formalizing governance with a three-person board to ensure financial oversight and move beyond the BDFL model toward more distributed leadership. This governance work, while less visible than code contributions, is essential for DDEV’s long-term sustainability.

How You Can Contribute

The DDEV community welcomes contributors of all skill levels:

Start Small

  • Fix typos in documentation
  • Report bugs with clear reproduction steps
  • Answer questions in Discord
  • Share your DDEV setup and workflows

Dive Deeper

Learn How

Thank You

Every contribution to DDEV—whether it’s a major feature, a documentation fix, answering a question in Discord, or sponsoring development—makes a difference. The contributors highlighted here represent just a fraction of the amazing people who make DDEV possible.

If you use DDEV and want to give back, we’d love to have you join us. Open source works because people like you decide to contribute.

Keep in touch!

Join us in Discord, follow the DDEV Newsletter, or open an issue to share your experience. We’re always trying to make DDEV better for you.

Compilation and editing assistance from Claude Code.

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