Navigating Hacktoberfest 2026: 4 PRs, CSS Architecture, and the Interledger Ecosystem

How I tackled Hacktoberfest 2026 across 4 distinct repositories in the Interledger Foundation ecosystem—from ASCII art to Astro CSS architecture fixes.

Every year, Hacktoberfest brings thousands of developers together to contribute to open source. But in 2026, the game has changed: automated PR counting and low-effort PRs are out, and meaningful, high-impact contributions are in.

This month, I decided to dive deep into the Interledger Foundation ecosystem. Instead of repeating beginner submissions in a single repo, my goal was to contribute across 4 distinct official repositories, covering everything from lighthearted community icebreakers to architectural documentation and production CSS fixes.

Here is the breakdown of what I built, the bugs I diagnosed, and what I learned along the way.

1. The Icebreakers: ASCII Art & Developer Humor

Getting familiar with a new ecosystem usually starts with reading docs, but Interledger has two fun community repositories:

interledger/community-jokes
interledger/ASCII-art

In community-jokes (PR #16
), I submitted a JSON joke capturing the friction between legacy payment gateways and modern Open Payments.

In ASCII-art (PR #12
), I designed a text-based Open Payments Digital Wallet within the project's strict 80-character width and 40-line height limits:

+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| [Interledger Foundation] Open Payments Wallet |
| |
| Account: $ilp.example.com/satanic47 |
| Balance: $1,337.00 USD [ Active ] |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| [ >>> SEND ] [ <<< RECEIVE ] [ QR-PAY ] |
| |
| Recent Peer Transfers: |
| - 25.00 USD --> $rafiki.money/alice [settled via ILP] |
| - 10.00 EUR <-- $fynbos.dev/bob [auto-converted] |
| - 50.00 USD --> $wallet.interledger/carol [completed] |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

These lighthearted repos served a real purpose: they validated that local CI linters (python3 scripts/validate.py) and contribution workflows were working cleanly before touching production code.

2. Fixing the Sticky Navbar Anchor Overlap in Astro & Starlight

The primary technical contribution was in interledger/interledger.org-v5 (PR #839
)—the official repository powering interledger.org and its Developer Portal.

The Bug

While navigating the documentation via in-page anchor links (e.g., #quickstart, #authentication), the browser scrolled the heading directly to the top edge of the viewport (y = 0). Because the navigation bar (header.header) is sticky with a fixed height (--sl-nav-height: 4.275rem), section titles were being partially obscured underneath the header.

The Fix

The repository uses Tailwind CSS v4 and Starlight documentation with a modular CSS architecture. Rather than introducing hardcoded pixel heights or arbitrary margins, I leveraged their existing design tokens and modern logical properties inside src/styles/interledger.css:

/* Anchor target scroll offset to prevent sticky header overlap */
.sl-markdown-content :is(h2, h3, h4, h5, h6)[id],
.sl-markdown-content :target {
scroll-margin-block-start: calc(var(--sl-nav-height) + var(--space-s));
}

Why this approach worked:
Zero Hardcoded Magic Numbers: Uses --sl-nav-height and --space-s tokens already defined in :root.
Modern Logical Properties: scroll-margin-block-start ensures compatibility across reading directions and matches the project's CSS conventions.
Accessibility: Guarantees that keyboard focus and anchor clicks land with comfortable breathing space below the fixed header.

3. Modernizing the Core Protocol Specs in interledger/rfcs

Next, I turned to interledger/rfcs (PR #607
), the official repository housing the Request for Comments and architecture blueprints for the Interledger Protocol stack (ILPv4, STREAM, SPSP).

Reviewing the README.md table of contents revealed several missing and outdated links:

RFC 35 (ILP over HTTP): One of the most critical specifications used by modern connectors (like Rafiki) to exchange ILP packets over HTTP/2 was completely missing from the README index.

RFC 30 (Notes on OER Encoding): Was referenced in passing text, but omitted from the specification directory.

Modern Reference Implementations: The README only pointed to legacy Interledger.js, so I updated it to reference Rafiki
, the flagship open-source Interledger wallet and connector service.
Security: Upgraded insecure http:// links to https://.

4. Don't Sleep on Non-Code Contributions

Beyond pull requests, open-source projects thrive on actionable bug reports. I submitted 6 detailed feedback items via the official Interledger Developer Portal feedback forms, highlighting:

Adding Skip to main content landmark navigation for screen readers.
Implementing loading="lazy" on Summit session video embeds to reduce mobile payload.
Indicating file formats and sizes ([PDF, 2.4 MB]) on resource download cards.

Maintainers love well-documented, reproduction-ready feedback just as much as code PRs!

Key Takeaways for Hacktoberfest Contributors

Spread your wings across the ecosystem: Submitting 4 PRs to 4 different repositories in an organization (jokes, ASCII-art, interledger.org-v5, rfcs) demonstrates versatility across community, frontend CSS, and protocol architecture.

Read the project's styling & contribution docs: In interledger.org-v5, reading src/styles/README.md before making edits ensured the PR matched their exact CSS layering rules without breaking isolation.
Quality over quantity: One clean, well-reasoned CSS fix or spec update will always stand out more than dozens of trivial typo PRs.

Happy Hacktoberfest, and happy hacking! 🚀