My repository to be used in open-source hackathon, is it a scam?

I'm the founder of an open-source project "The SUS Compiler", a language for doing hardware design for highly pipelined FPGA Accelerators. We've had moderate success, with several external contributors both academic and non-academic. Our work is licensed under GPL3. I've been approached by a company called "OnlyDust", and they wish to include my repository in their open-source hackaton coming up in two days. They say their hackaton will drive new contributors to our repository, claiming they expect 5 "Good meaning skilled in Rust and with an interest on compilers." contributors. Now, of course more outreach for our little repository seems like a good thing, but I wonder what the catch might be. They require me to install their GitHub app to my repository. It seems to only need read access to the repo and write access for issues. Seems harmless enough to me. Does anyone have experience with such contributor drives, and the quality of the people they bring? Can I expect this to be a nice and easy marketing bump, or is it just going to bring me headaches?

Jun 24, 2025 - 19:50

I'm the founder of an open-source project "The SUS Compiler", a language for doing hardware design for highly pipelined FPGA Accelerators. We've had moderate success, with several external contributors both academic and non-academic. Our work is licensed under GPL3.

I've been approached by a company called "OnlyDust", and they wish to include my repository in their open-source hackaton coming up in two days. They say their hackaton will drive new contributors to our repository, claiming they expect 5 "Good meaning skilled in Rust and with an interest on compilers." contributors.

Now, of course more outreach for our little repository seems like a good thing, but I wonder what the catch might be. They require me to install their GitHub app to my repository. It seems to only need read access to the repo and write access for issues. Seems harmless enough to me.

Does anyone have experience with such contributor drives, and the quality of the people they bring? Can I expect this to be a nice and easy marketing bump, or is it just going to bring me headaches?