Contributing to Inference OSS That Won't Stand Still: A BoF on vLLM, llm-d, and the Moving Target

Contributing to fast-moving inference projects like vLLM and llm-d is not like contributing to stable infrastructure. The architecture shifts under you, decisions happen across Slack threads and weekly syncs, "stable" APIs aren't, and the docs are often the code. Multiple companies have stakes, sometimes competing. Newcomers bounce off the velocity; even experienced contributors struggle to find where decisions are actually made. This BoF gathers contributors, maintainers, and would-be contributors to compare notes on how to engage with projects that won't stand still. How do you land a first PR when main moves daily? How do maintainers onboard people without slowing down? How do cross-company projects make technical decisions in the open - and how do you get into the room where they happen? What works, what doesn't, and what nobody warns you about.

Bring your own war stories. We'll surface patterns, anti-patterns, and the unwritten rules that make these communities navigable - and leave with a shared sense of how to contribute to inference OSS without burning out or giving up.