Hi Marco, Welcome, and thank you for such a thoughtful question.
Divesh already gave a great overview of the technical direction (the REST API work, modularization, AI agent skills, and so on), so I will not repeat that. I would like to add a different angle that speaks to two things you raised: ease of discovery and reputation. OFBiz is a powerful, capable platform, but it is not always easy to discover or evaluate from the outside. A lot of its strength sits behind a learning curve and a web presence that does not yet do the project justice. I think that is one of the most valuable areas anyone can contribute to right now, and it happens to be one where you do not need to be a deep OFBiz developer to make a real difference. A few areas where it would be great to work together, with you and others in the community: - Restructuring and refreshing the website so newcomers can quickly understand what OFBiz is, what it does, and how to get started. - Creating marketing and explainer materials (clear messaging, use cases, getting-started guides, visuals) that make the project more approachable for businesses and new contributors. - Improving onboarding so that a newcomer's first experience of OFBiz matches the strength of the platform underneath. I would happily dedicate time and effort to these areas, alongside whatever the community deems most useful. If any of it resonates, I would be glad to compare notes on where the biggest gaps are and where we might start. Your perspective as someone newer to OFBiz is genuinely valuable here. You can see the friction points that those of us who have been around a while have stopped noticing. Looking forward to working with you. Best regards, Aditi Patel On Fri, Jun 12, 2026 08:57 PM, Divesh Dutta <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Marco, > > Thank you for raising this question. I think it's an important one, > especially for people who are considering investing their time and energy > into Apache OFBiz. > > My personal view is that there isn't a single strategy that everyone in the > community follows. That's one of the strengths of an Apache project. > Different contributors and organizations have different goals, but they > collaborate around a common open-source platform. > > That said, from what I've observed, there is a common desire to make Apache > OFBiz easier to adopt, easier to extend, and ultimately more widely used to > solve real business problems. > > Several recent initiatives reflect this direction: > > > - Work is underway to bring the REST API plugin closer to the framework, > making it easier to build modern API-driven applications. > - There have been ongoing efforts to further separate the framework from > the bundled business applications. This modularization makes it easier > to > upgrade to newer OFBiz versions while allowing organizations to build > and > maintain their own applications with less friction. > - Contributors are building more API-first capabilities and examples > that can serve as the foundation for headless applications and modern > front > ends. > - The community has also contributed AI Agent Skills that help coding > agents and developers understand OFBiz and become productive more > quickly. > > > You can find the OFBiz AI Agent Skills here: > > https://github.com/apache/ofbiz-plugins/tree/trunk/ai-agent-skills > > These skills are available as an OFBiz plugin and can be used with various > coding agents and AI tools to improve productivity and learning. > > In addition, there is active contribution focused on making OFBiz an > excellent platform for AI-native applications. For example, Anil recently > did some work on an agentic framework for LLM integration that would make > it easier to build autonomous agents on top of OFBiz: > > https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/OFBIZ-13408 > > Taken together, these efforts suggest a direction where OFBiz is positioned > as a modern, API-first, AI-ready enterprise automation platform. In my > opinion, these initiatives are ultimately about increasing adoption and > lowering the barrier for developers and businesses to build on OFBiz. > > Beyond the project itself, each company or individual can choose their own > strategy and specialization. Some organizations build domain-specific > solutions such as Warehouse Management Systems (WMS), Order Management > Systems (OMS), manufacturing solutions, or other vertical applications on > top of OFBiz, and then provide consulting, implementation, customization, > hosting, or support services around them. > > I see the project as providing a strong shared foundation, while the > ecosystem innovates in different directions based on expertise and market > needs. > > So, if you're deciding where to invest your energy, my suggestion would be > to identify an area where your skills and interests align with a real > business need. Improving documentation, onboarding, integrations, APIs, AI > tooling, business applications, or user experience are all valuable > contributions that can benefit both the community and your own long-term > goals. > > I look forward to seeing your contributions and learning from your > experiences with Néréide and Apache OFBiz. > > Best regards > -- > Divesh Dutta > www.hotwaxsystems.com > > > On Fri, Jun 12, 2026 at 7:23 PM Marco RODRIGUES <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Hi Apache/OFBiz Community, > > > > I am a senior Linux sysadmin in France. > > > > I know Apache/OFBiz from many years across Free software promotion. > > From some years, I have chosen to improve my skills in business > > management. > > > > Since 6 months, I work almost daily with Néréide to learn how to work > > with Apache OFBiz and make it provides a solution to business. I am > > still a newbie, but I begin to have some landmarks and make interesting > > things. > > > > I recognize in Apache/OFBiz a strong solution with a lot of > > possibilities. But it requires enough skills and a team to make a little > > ambitious project. And it could be improved in terms of ease of use at > > discovering and reputation. > > > > At this step I have to choose which energy and means I want to invest in > > Apache/OFBiz. Néréide has its own way and I have to make mine. It's > > important for me to know if I can be useful and what stance to take. > > > > As we deal with a free software and have an active community, I think an > > important step is know what is the strategy in the community ... > > Is there a single strategy or several ? Which ones ? > > Does the community want Apache/OFBIZ to be used more or just to make it > > available ? > > > > If some of you can share their ideas and feelings about this, it can be > > helpful to find my way ... > > > > Regards. > > > > Marco. >
