Joplin has a strong track record of participation in Google Summer of Code, spanning four years. All contributors, Joplin users and developers are welcome to participate in the hopefully next Summer of Code program with Joplin.
Here's how.
The focus this year is on:
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AI/ML - Joplin enables users to manage extensive note collections, including personal notes, images, and other documents. We aim to leverage AI and ML technologies to explore and utilise this data in innovative ways.
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Security - As users may potentially store a vast amount of private data in Joplin, security and privacy have always been of utmost importance. We aim to explore ways to further enhance security and privacy measures.
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And you are welcome to suggest your own ideas!
We suggest you read carefully these important documents and bookmark the links as you will need to refer to them throughout GSoC:
Join the Joplin Forum and introduce yourself on the Welcome post.
Introduce yourself in a structured manner, share your GitHub username, your interests and meet your fellow developers.
Summer of Code is a professional opportunity. Over three months, you’ll be expected to produce clean, maintainable code for Joplin. Mentors dedicate time to guide you, so we look for contributors who are committed, communicate proactively, and deliver quality work.
You don’t need to be an experienced developer, but prior coding experience—especially with the technologies used in the project—is helpful.
Before the coding period starts, familiarise yourself with the part of the project you plan to work on. You should communicate with your mentor several times per week and provide a short weekly progress report.
Lack of active communication may result in failing the programme.
Please read the forum with more up to date information on how to submit your proposal draft:
https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/gsoc-2026-how-to-submit-your-proposal-draft/49137
A project proposal is what you will be judged upon. Write a clear proposal on what you plan to do, the scope of your project, and why we should choose you to do it. Proposals are the basis of the GSoC projects and therefore one of the most important things to do well. The proposal is not only the basis of our decision of which contributor to choose, but it has also an effect on Google's decision as to how many contributor slots are assigned to Joplin.
The application template is documented on the same forum thread:
https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/gsoc-2026-how-to-submit-your-proposal-draft/49137
Submit early: earlier drafts get more feedback and visibility.
Don’t wait until the deadline: late submissions may receive little attention and risk technical issues.
Keep it clear and focused: use a descriptive title and write concisely.
Be realistic and relevant: propose something achievable within the summer and clearly related to Joplin. If the scope is larger, explain how it can be split or continued.
Consider multiple proposals: you may submit more than one (including to other organisations), but prioritise quality over quantity.
Your primary responsibility is finishing your project under the guidance of your mentors. To do that, you must submit code regularly and stay in frequent and effective communication with your mentors and team. To pass the evaluations, you must do both the communication and the coding plus documentation.
All contributors will create a report page by tool up to their choice. Keep this up-to-date, as this is one of our primary evaluation tools.
