Google Summer of Code 2026: Project Ideas

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Join Percona for Google Summer of Code 2026 – Explore, Innovate, and Contribute!

Are you passionate about open-source databases, AI/ML, and security? Do you want to work on real-world projects that impact thousands of developers and enterprises worldwide? Percona is excited to invite students to participate in Google Summer of Code 2026 (GSoC) and help advance our cutting-edge open-source database solutions!

Why Contribute to Percona?

At Percona, we believe that Open World Is A Better World! GSoC is an excellent opportunity to work with seasoned developers, gain hands-on experience, and contribute to powerful global database tools businesses use.

For 2026, we’re especially interested in projects that focus on AI/ML and security—two critical areas shaping the future of databases. Whether you’re passionate about automating database performance insights with AI or hardening security for mission-critical data, we have exciting challenges for you!

Project Ideas for GSoC 2026

Below are some suggested project ideas categorized by Percona software:

Percona Distribution for PostgreSQL (?)

Projects will arrive soon - at the latest by Feb 4, 2026.

Percona Software for MongoDB (4)

Percona Backup for MongoDB backup speed throttling

On large-scale deployments, backups may significantly impact network performance - specifically, network bandwidth may be heavily utilized, if the backup storage is fast, causing performance degradation of the database itself. Database reliability engineers would like to reduce the network load by slowing down physical backups with Percona Backup for MongoDB (PBM) configuration. The scope of the project is to implement a network bandwidth rate limiter and perform load testing showing the impact or rate limiting on backup time.

Deliverables:
The expected outcome of this project is insurance that backup will not degrade network bandwidth impacting the database. As a result a participant needs to provide proposed code changes in a form of fork of PBM and a create a report with load test results.

Required/preferred skills: Go
Duration: 175 hours
Difficulty level: Easy
Mentors: @radoslaw.szulgo, @Boris_Ilijic
Relevant repository and resources:

Percona Backup for MongoDB Golang SDK

The project aims to extend capabilities and reduce maintenance in monitoring, managing, and automating MongoDB backups and restores from the Percona Monitoring and Management (PMM) tool. The project’s scope includes migrating from Percona Backup for MongoDB CLI to a dedicated PBM Golang client library in PMM. The client library (aka SDK) must be implemented to map all current CLI operations to Go API functions. The project can be extended as a stretch goal to implement backup progress reporting using the SDK created in this project.

Deliverables:
The project’s expected outcome is the reduced maintenance of backup integration in PMM project and enabling extensibility of backup management. As a result of the project, a new open-source SDK should be created.

Required/preferred skills: Go
Duration: 350 hours
Difficulty level: Easy
Mentors: @radoslaw.szulgo, @Jakub_Cechacek
Relevant repository and resources:

CEPH Storage support in Percona Backup for MongoDB

Ceph is an open-source Software Defined Storage(SDS) software that is massively scalable and reliable. It’s one of the most popular storage technologies in Kubernetes and Openshift. The project aims to enable users to store their Percona Backups for MongoDB data on Ceph storage, which would be very convenient as they wouldn’t need to manage additional storage. The scope of the project includes building a workspace on Kubernetes using the Percona Operator for MongoDB, researching current challenges with Ceph storage, and implementing necessary changes to make it performant. One possible approach is to use an existing Ceph S3 API (RGW in Ceph) as remote storage for PBM. At the end, document the solution.

Deliverables:
The project’s deliverables are technical documentation, Percona Operator for MongoDB changes, and instructions on setting up an environment with Ceph storage.

Required/preferred skills: Go, Kubernetes
Duration: 175 hours
Difficulty level: Easy
Mentors: @radoslaw.szulgo, @ricardo.dias , @Ege_Gunes
Relevant repository and resources:

OpenStack Swift storage support in Percona Backup for MongoDB

The OpenStack Object Store project, known as Swift, provides cloud storage software that lets you store and retrieve large amounts of data with a simple API. It’s built for scale and optimized for durability, availability, and concurrency across the entire data set. Swift is ideal for storing unstructured data that can grow without bounds. Swift is very convenient to use as a backup storage for MongoDB workloads running on the OpenStack platform. The scope of the project includes building a workspace environment on Google Cloud Platform with OpenStack clusters and running there Percona Server for MongoDB. Then, implement the required changes in Percona Backup for MongoDB to support Swift storage. Finally, performing benchmark tests and comparison to GCP native storage.

Deliverables:
It is expected that the project deliver an architecture diagram of the testing environment on Google Cloud Platform, the implementation of required changes to support OpenStack Swift in PBM, and a report incl. performance benchmark results and comparisons with other storage systems.

Required/preferred skills: Go, GCP, OpenStack
Duration: 175 hours
Difficulty level: Medium
Mentors: @radoslaw.szulgo , @Boris_Ilijic
Relevant repositories and resources:

Percona Build Engineering (2)

Evolving CI/CD: Automating Build, Test, and Release for Robust Software Delivery Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines are the backbone of modern software development, ensuring rapid, reliable, and repeatable delivery. However, many pipelines still operate in fragmented stages, where builds and tests are automated, but releases remain a manual or semi-automated process.

This project aims to transform our CI/CD pipelines into a true end-to-end automated system, seamlessly integrating build, test, and release stages. By implementing best practices in CI/CD automation, we will ensure that only thoroughly tested software progresses to release, minimizing human intervention and reducing the risk of deployment failures.

Deliverables:
The successful completion of this project will result in a fully automated and robust CI/CD pipeline that seamlessly integrates build, test, and release processes. The key outcomes will include:

Fully Automated CI/CD Pipeline

A redesigned pipeline where builds, testing, and releases are interconnected and automated.
Code changes will automatically trigger builds, run tests, and, if successful, deploy releases without manual intervention.
Comprehensive Test Integration

The pipeline will incorporate unit tests, integration tests, security scans, and other quality assurance mechanisms.
Ensuring that faulty builds do not reach production by enforcing test-driven deployment.
Automated Release Process

A mechanism that automatically releases software only if all tests pass.
Versioning, tagging, and artifact management will be streamlined.
The release process will be documented and configurable for different environments (e.g., staging, production).
Infrastructure as Code (IaC) & Deployment Automation

Documentation & Guides

Clear technical documentation detailing the new pipeline’s workflow and configuration.
A step-by-step guide for developers and DevOps engineers on how to use and extend the pipeline.

Required/preferred skills: CI/CDl like Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or similar; Docker; Testing frameworks and automated deployment strategies; infrastructure as code (IaC) and cloud environments is a plus.
Duration: 350 hours
Difficulty level: Medium
Mentors: @Evgeniy_Patlan , @Vadim_Yalovets
Relevant repository: GitHub - Percona-Lab/jenkins-pipelines

Build Automation for Open-Source Databases

Building and maintaining multiple database forks—such as MySQL, MongoDB, and PostgreSQL—often requires redundant build scripts, resulting in inefficiencies, inconsistencies, and increased maintenance overhead. Currently, each database has its own set of build scripts despite sharing many common steps.

This project aims to develop a modular, extensible build system that allows for streamlined compilation and packaging of different database forks. The system will provide a flexible framework where users can select required modules, specify target OS distributions, and automate the build process with minimal configuration.

By implementing a plugin-based architecture, this modular builder will simplify cross-database maintenance, reduce duplication, and improve consistency across different builds.

Deliverables:
Modular Build Framework – A reusable, pluggable system that dynamically selects required modules for MySQL, MongoDB, and PostgreSQL builds.

Multi-OS Support – Automated builds for multiple Linux distributions (Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, RHEL) with configurable OS selection.

Automated Package Creation – DEB and RPM package generation with standardized versioning and tagging.

Configurable & Scalable Builds – Easy customization of build parameters, allowing extension to new database forks or patches.

CI/CD Integration – Optional support for Jenkins, GitHub Actions, or GitLab CI to enable fully automated builds.

Comprehensive Documentation – User and developer guides with example configurations for quick adoption and extension.

Required/preferred skills: Bash/Python, CMake, Makefiles, Autotools, Linux and packaging (DEB/RPM), dependency management, CD/CD tools are a plus
Duration: 175 hours
Difficulty level: Medium
Mentors: @Evgeniy_Patlan , @Vadim_Yalovets
Relevant repositories:

GSoC isn’t just about working on predefined ideas—it’s about innovation! If you have a project idea that aligns with Percona software, AI/ML, security, or database performance, submit your proposal, and our mentors will be happy to discuss it with you.

:rocket: Do you have questions? Visit our Community Forum or join our chat channels to connect with potential mentors.
:fire: Ready to get started? See our Google Summer of Code 2026: Contribution guide.

See you in GSoC 2026! :tada: