12 Open Source Gems To Become The Ultimate Developer 🔥

TL;DR It's been a while since I've done a collection (maybe month ago), but today let's look at 12 new and not-so-new projects that can really help you in development.

They touch on different areas of development, but we will mainly talk about web development. If there's a project worth adding to the next collection, feel free to write about it in the comments, and maybe it will be included.

1. 🤖 OpenWork - The open source Claude Cowork alternative. And we will continue, of course, with AI projects. This tool will allow you to work in one convenient interface with many popular LLMs.

OpenWork is the desktop app that lets you use 50+ LLMs. 💎 Check out the OpenWork repository ☆ 2. 💻 T3 Code - The open-source control plane for coding agents.

If you know a YouTuber like Theo, then you should know this project. It's an OpenCode alternative that lets you work with AI in an easy-to-use chat interface. It enables control of the agents on your machine with a best-in-class mobile app (iOS, Android), web app and Electron-based desktop app.

💎 Check out the T3 Code repository ☆ 3. ⚙️ Summarize - Point at any URL or file. Get the gist. The first project is a small tool for extracting short info of content.

Summarize was created by one of the creators of the well-known OpenClaw. Fast summaries from URLs, files, and media. 💎 Check out the Summarize repository ☆ 4.

👾 Godot - Free and open source 2D and 3D game engine A truly legendary engine like Unity or Unreal Engine for games. If you are a game developer, you should know this project. From pet projects for the university to multi-million dollar games - it gives it all.

Godot Engine is a feature-packed, cross-platform game engine to create 2D and 3D games from a unified interface. It provides a comprehensive set of common tools, so that users can focus on making games without having to reinvent the wheel. 💎 Check out the Godot repository ☆ 5.

💎 React Bits - An open source collection of animated, interactive & fully customizable React components. An excellent collection of components no worse than shad/cn, which will allow you to create a modern design for your website. By the way, hello to David :) The largest & most creative library of animated React components.

💎 Check out the React Bits repository ☆ 6. 🎬 Remotion - Make videos programmatically. If you would like to make it possible to create videos on your website by writing just one prompt, then this tool is perfect for you.

Create real MP4 videos with React. Use coding agents, build apps and render in bulk. 💎 Check out the Remotion repository ☆ 7. 🐈‍⬛ Nest.js - A progressive Node.js framework for building efficient, scalable, and enterprise-grade server-side applications If you’ve ever wished Express had a bit more structure, Nest.js is the upgrade you’ve been looking for.

It brings TypeScript, OOP, and a modular architecture to Node.js development. Nest is a framework for building efficient, scalable Node.js server-side applications. It uses modern JavaScript, is built with TypeScript (preserves compatibility with pure JavaScript) and combines elements of OOP (Object Oriented Programming), FP (Functional Programming), and FRP (Functional Reactive Programming).

💎 Check out the Nest.js repository ☆ 8. ⚙️ GitMCP - free, open-source, remote MCP server for any GitHub project The following project is a server implementing the MCP protocol that connects LLM directly to a GitHub repository. GitMCP is a free, open-source, remote Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that transforms any GitHub project (repositories or GitHub pages) into a documentation hub.

💎 Check out the GitMCP repository ☆ 9. 🧩 json-render - The Generative UI framework. The next tool from Vercel allows you to create user interfaces literally from a json object. Predefined components and actions for safe, predictable output.

💎 Check out the json-render repository ☆ 10. 🔀 Flowise - Build AI Agents, Visually. If you've ever worked with Scratch, then you may be familiar with a slightly similar interface.

This project will allow you to create AI agent workflow in a practical builder. Open source agentic systems development platform. 💎 Check out the Flowise repository ☆ 11.

🍎 MLX - An array framework for Apple silicon An excellent framework from Apple that will allow you to teach your MacBook, iMac and other devices to solve many necessary tasks for business and more. MLX is designed by machine learning researchers for machine learning researchers. The framework is intended to be user-friendly, but still efficient to train and deploy models.

The design of the framework itself is also conceptually simple. 💎 Check out the MLX repository ☆ 12. 🔤 Pretext - Fast, accurate & comprehensive text measurement & layout.

Well, the last project, no, not an AI project, but a small javascript library for working with fonts and text at all. const prepared = prepare(textareaValue, '16px Inter', { whiteSpace: 'pre-wrap' }) const { height } = layout(prepared, textareaWidth, 20) Pretext side-steps the need for DOM measurements (e.g. getBoundingClientRect, offsetHeight), which trigger layout reflow, one of the most expensive operations in the browser.

It implements its own text measurement logic, using the browsers' own font engine as ground truth (very AI-friendly iteration method). 💎 Check out the Pretext repository ☆ 🖋️ Conclusion In this article, I have reviewed only a small part of the volume of projects that are important and even necessary for every developer to know.

It is clear that, well, let's say, there are hundreds of such projects today, and maybe more. But I hope you have discovered something new, and if not, at least remembered that there is. Thank you very much for reading this article ❤️!

What other projects do you know that are not so popular, but also useful? It will be interesting to find out in the comments!