For my third Hacktoberfest contribution, I decided to work on the Public APIs repository, which collects free and open APIs that developers can use for learning or building projects. It already had the Hacktoberfest topic, so it was a great choice for a simple yet meaningful contribution.
I added a new entry for the Art Institute of Chicago API to the Art & Design category. This API provides free access to artworks and museum data, making it an excellent resource for anyone interested in art or cultural data projects. I updated the README.md following the project’s contribution rules, kept the description short, formatted the table correctly, and ensured the entry stayed in alphabetical order.
The process taught me how strict formatting can be in large open-source repositories and how even a one-line addition needs to follow established contribution guidelines. I also learned how to use the contributor checklist to verify spacing, description length, and commit squashing before submitting.
Once I pushed my branch and opened the pull request, GitHub showed that the repo already carried the Hacktoberfest topic, so the PR automatically counted toward my progress. Seeing my name appear among contributors felt rewarding—it reminded me that open source values every improvement, no matter how small.
Next, I plan to explore a project where I can contribute a small code or configuration fix, continuing to move from documentation toward hands-on development tasks.