How to grow a project? [D]

I recently got my first paper accepted at EMNLP and open-sourced the code. The core idea is fundamental change, so I’ve been expanding it into a larger system with chatbot agents and extra components.

My goal was to build a community around it as I plan to use it on other projects too but also knowing the field O genuinely see it being very useful. I’ve been highlighting open research questions and posting updates in different communities, but I’m getting basically zero engagement.

I know the AI landscape moves ridiculously fast now compared to 4-5 years ago and Claude does most of the coding, but how are people actually getting collaborators these days? I'm not just looking for pull requests. I really want people to bounce ideas around with, discuss system logic, and figure out new integrations. How do you get researchers or devs genuinely interested in contributing to an open project now?