A Request From a Solo Developer With Big Goals and Very Tired Arms

[Austen0305]

Hello Github Community,

My name is William Walker. I’m a solo developer working on personal and open source projects, trying to build a future in software one commit at a time usually after a long day of convincing gravity that grain is heavier than it looks.

I’m not a student and I’m not backed by a company. I currently work long, physical hours at a grain elevator, which means my days involve heavy machinery, dust, and muscle groups I didn’t know existed. My nights, however, are reserved for code, learning, and slowly teaching my brain to switch from forklifts to functions.

Because of that setup, money is tight and time is limited. Tools like your AI coding assistant aren’t just a “nice to have” for me they’re the difference between making progress after a 10–12 hour shift and staring at the screen wondering why JavaScript behaves the way it does.

So I wanted to ask sincerely, optimistically, and with full understanding of your business reality—if you ever offer free or extended access to your tools for independent developers or open-source contributors who are building toward something bigger, but aren’t quite there yet financially.

If the answer is “not at this time,” or “please stop asking us.” I completely understand. I figured it was still worth asking rather than going back to arguing with a blinking cursor that refuses to help.

Thank you for building tools that lower the barrier to entry and give solo developers a real shot at changing their future preferably before my knees officially retire.

Best regards,
William Walker
GitHub: https://github.com/Austen0305
Email: labarcodez@gmail.com

P.S. If this message feels like it was written late at night after a long shift and one too many cups of coffee that is 100% correct.

[aguiarcode]

Hi William, first things first thank you for sharing your background. This is a genuinely thoughtful post, and a lot of people here can relate to the “physical job by day, code by night” transition. I admire all of you guys who are doing this right now.

To answer your question directly and transparently:
At the moment, GitHub offers free Copilot access primarily in two cases:

Verified students and educators

Maintainers of popular open-source repositories (typically based on usage, stars, or dependency reach) -> You should take advantage of this one.

You might also consider giving Neovim a try as your IDE. It has a strong open-source ecosystem, and many community-driven plugins can help fill some of the gaps when paid tools aren’t an option.

There are also strong local-first or open-source AI tools (e.g., Codeium) that many solo developers use effectively when Copilot isn’t an option.

One additional thought — while AI tools can be incredibly helpful, there’s also real value in spending some time coding without them. This stage you find yourself in, difficult as it is, can be an opportunity to build deeper intuition and problem-solving habits that tend to pay off long-term. Even mixing AI-assisted sessions with “manual” ones can be surprisingly powerful.

Wishing you steady progress on the nights you have the energy, and patience with JavaScript on the nights you don’t. Keep going!

[Austen0305]

Thank you aguiarcode for your response. The reason I am asking is I have spent months now building this project. At this rate it will take me years. Since I work a full time labor job from 7am to 8pm it is hard to get anything done in the few hours after work before I am completely dead tired. And again thank you for your feedback.