GSoc 2025 - Interested applicant seeking guidance

[ankitsharma101]

Discussion

Hi Theia community! 👋

I'm Ankit, and I recently made my first contribution to Theia (PR #16932 - fixing whitespace collapsing in the Explorer). I'm interested in applying for GSoC 2026 and would love to learn more about:

1. Is Theia participating in GSoC 2026?
2. Are there project ideas or areas you'd recommend for GSoC proposals?
3. What kinds of contributions would be most valuable for demonstrating readiness?

I'm excited about contributing more to the project and would appreciate any guidance from mentainers and experienced contributors!

Thanks! 🙏

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[msujew]

Hey @ankitsharma101, thank you for your interesting in contributing something to Theia during GSoC!

I'm not entirely sure whether Theia explicitly needs to participate (I don't think we ever did explicitly), or whether the Eclipse Foundation as a whole simply has to participate. It looks like during the recent years there have been a few projects for GSoC hosted by the Eclipse Foundation.

I'm pretty sure there are interesting project ideas around - I just don't know about the organizational specifics. @JonasHelming Do you know perhaps?

[JonasHelming]

Hi @ankitsharma101

I will check for the organizational pre-requisites with the Eclipse Foundation, but this should be possible and this would be great. I will also check with the team for potential topic ideas. I assume you would like to work in the "AI area"? :-)

[JonasHelming]

@ankitsharma101 What is the time line on this so when do proposals need to be in?

[tfroment]

Hi @ankitsharma101, thanks again for your interest and for already contributing to Theia.

For the organisational details around GSoC at the Eclipse Foundation, including timelines and the current status, I recommend checking the soc-dev mailing list message here, which explains the process in detail:
https://www.eclipse.org/lists/soc-dev/msg01010.html

More generally, participating in GSoC is possible and valuable, but it depends on having a mentor who can commit real time to mentoring and some project leadership during the program. This is why ideas are only proposed when that level of commitment is clearly available.

On the timeline, the official call for ideas for this year had an early February deadline. Even if that date has passed, if there is a concrete idea and a committed mentor, it is still worth checking quickly with Maria Teresa Delgado at the Eclipse Foundation to see what flexibility might exist.

[tfroment]

edit: in the message, Maria says that deadline is Feb 3rd, but GSoc deadline for mentors is Feb 11.... I don't know if they are open to the discussion

[ankitsharma101]

Thank you all for the responses and information! Really appreciate the guidance.

@JonasHelming To answer your questions:

Timeline: According to the GSoC 2025 timeline, the contributor application period is March 18 - April 2, 2025.

AI area: I'm definitely interested in learning about AI integration in development tools! I don't have deep AI experience yet, but I'm eager to learn and contribute in that area if there are opportunities. I'm also very open to working on UI/UX improvements, IDE features, or other areas where I can make meaningful contributions based on my current skills.

@tfroment Thanks for sharing the mailing list link! I'll check that out. I understand the mentor commitment requirement and appreciate you looking into the organizational details.

My approach: I'd like to continue making contributions to build my understanding of the Theia codebase, whether or not GSoC works out for this year.

Current work:

• PR Fix whitespace collapsing in Explorer file/folder names #16932: Fixed whitespace collapsing in Explorer (merged ✅)
• Looking for more UI/UX or feature issues to tackle

If there are specific areas or issues you'd recommend for someone at my level, I'd be happy to focus there and learn as I go!

Thanks again for considering this and for being so welcoming! 🙏

[ankitsharma101]

Hi @sdirix,

Thanks a lot for the detailed explanation and for drafting the broader proposal — that really helps.

I see your point now. I was trying to turn logging into a full GSoC project, but it makes much more sense to frame this under a broader umbrella like improving the Theia framework adopter experience.

I really like the idea of starting with logging as a beginner-friendly area and then gradually moving into performance, detachable views, OpenTelemetry, and other framework improvements as I get more familiar with the codebase. That approach feels much more realistic and meaningful.

I’ll update the proposal based on your draft and make it my own before submitting it. Please let me know if there’s anything specific you’d like me to emphasize.

Thanks again for the guidance — I really appreciate it.

[ankitsharma101]

Hi @sdirix and @JonasHelming,

Thank you again for steering me towards the Framework Adopter Experience umbrella! Based on our discussions, your feedback, and my recent deep dives into the codebase, I have put together my formal GSoC proposal draft.

I have attached the PDF for review. Inside, I have outlined the technical approach, deliverables, and a 12-week timeline targeting the following core areas:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/15I2zbLmn6GRJaH9QkAtdBOpovvzd0K2TLWOnVO9yZho/edit?tab=t.0

Unified Logging & Observability (Targeting Epic #9545)

Startup Performance Profiling (Targeting Epic #12924 & Issue #9868)

Detachable Views & Window Management (CSS propagation lifecycle)

OpenTelemetry Evaluation (Distributed tracing PoC)

To ensure my technical approaches are on the right track, I included local DevTools performance profiling (highlighting the frontend await chains and .vsix unzipping delays) as well as proposed architectural diagrams for the OTel and Lumino widget lifecycles.

What I am looking for:
Before I finalize the document's styling and formatting for the final Google submission, I would love your feedback on the content and technical scope. Specifically:

Does this 4-pillar approach feel appropriately sized for the 350-hour timeline?

Are the technical approaches aligned with how you envision these Epics being resolved?

Thank you again for all the continuous guidance and support over the past few weeks!

[ankitsharma101]

Hi @tfroment, @sdirix, and @JonasHelming. Just a quick update: I have officially submitted my proposal via the Google portal and created the corresponding issue on the Eclipse Foundation GitLab. I am completely open to refining the scope or adjusting the technical approaches during the review period based on any feedback you might have. Thanks again for all the guidance!
Link: https://gitlab.eclipse.org/eclipsefdn/emo-team/gsoc-at-the-ef/-/issues/32

[sdirix]

Hi @ankitsharma101,

This is good progress. Personally I would keep the proposal in Gitlab a bit more vague to give you and us a bit more leeway. At the moment the four objectives are really detailed and don't leave much room for adjustment. So I would give these as example tasks but specifically keep a separate bullet point for other objectives in coordination with the mentors.

Besides that, some details must be improved:

In the Gitlab issue: For the performance metric, the LCP is a good data point but also we need to improve the time to first visual (FP/FPC) and Time to Interactive (TTI/FID). I think the objective should just point out that frontend and backend need to be profiled and various metrics shall be looked at and improved. I would not link to the specific vsix extraction issue, I think the ticket is outdated and need to be closed (I will check).

In the GDoc you shared there are more details which we need to discuss. For example a AST based analyzer for the console logging is likely overkill. But this can be discussed later once you actually start with the GSoC.

Thank you

[ankitsharma101]

Hi @sdirix, thanks for the feedback!

I totally agree that we should keep the scope flexible so we can focus on the most pressing bottlenecks when the coding period actually starts. I've updated the GitLab issue: the specific tasks are now listed as examples, I added FP/FCP and TTI/FID to the performance metrics, and I removed the specific .vsix ticket since it might be outdated.

About the AST analyzer in the GDoc—you're right, it's probably overkill for the logging scope. Since the formal Google submission is today, I'll leave the draft as-is for now, but I'm really looking forward to revisiting that and trimming the fat during the Community Bonding period if I'm accepted.

Thanks again for all the help!