“Make sure you have docs for developers to know how to deploy their project — this is super important. If they don't know how to deploy your project, they will just churn, they will not clone your repository. It's a lot better to create a Docker for your project.”

A Docker image is the make-or-break for first-install activation in OSS

For open-source onboarding, deployment friction is the primary churn driver — if developers can't get the project running, they abandon it before starring or contributing. A Docker image collapses the first-install path to one command and turns deployment docs into a marketing asset.