GitHub Repository Analytics

What does GitHub Repository Analytics do?

GitHub Repository Analytics delivers deep, structured metrics for any list of public GitHub repositories using the official GitHub REST API. Provide a list of owner/repo slugs and get back GitHub stars, fork counts, open issues, watchers, release history, contributor activity, maturity labels, and language breakdowns — all in one dataset. No mandatory API key is required for public repos, though providing a GitHub Personal Access Token unlocks 5,000 requests per hour versus 60 unauthenticated.

This actor is the backbone for automated repo metrics tracking, competitive benchmarking, and portfolio monitoring pipelines that need reliable, structured GitHub data at scale.

Why use GitHub Repository Analytics?

Track GitHub repository metrics across any portfolio of repos without hitting rate limits or writing your own API integration.

1. Competitive benchmarking — Compare GitHub stars, forks, open issues, and activity scores across your competitors' repositories on a scheduled basis to track growth trajectories over time.
2. Open-source portfolio monitoring — Investors and analysts tracking OSS-backed companies can pull weekly snapshots of repo metrics to surface momentum shifts before they show up in press coverage.
3. Developer relations reporting — DevRel teams can automate weekly reports on community health: star growth, open issues, contributor diversity, and release cadence — all in one structured dataset.
4. Dependency due diligence — When evaluating a library or vendor, pull a full GitHub repository analytics snapshot — last commit date, maturity label, license type, and contributor count — in seconds via the Apify API.
5. Research datasets — Build longitudinal GitHub stars forks API datasets for academic research on open-source sustainability, community dynamics, or software ecosystem evolution.

How to use GitHub Repository Analytics

1. Open the actor on Apify and click Try for free.
2. Enter your list of repositories in owner/repo format (e.g. microsoft/vscode, facebook/react).
3. Optionally add a GitHub Personal Access Token for higher rate limits (5,000 req/hr).
4. Click Start — results appear in the dataset within seconds for small batches.
5. Download as JSON, CSV, or Excel — or integrate via the Apify API for automated pipelines.

For large portfolios (100+ repos), provide a PAT to avoid rate limiting. Schedule the actor weekly to build a time-series dataset of repository growth.

Input

Field	Type	Required	Description
repos	array	Yes	List of repository slugs in owner/repo format (e.g. ["torvalds/linux", "facebook/react"]).
optionalToken	string	No	GitHub Personal Access Token for 5,000 req/hr rate limit (vs. 60/hr unauthenticated). No special scopes needed for public repos.

Example input:

{
  "repos": ["microsoft/vscode", "tensorflow/tensorflow", "facebook/react"],
  "optionalToken": "ghp_..."
}

Output

Each item in the dataset represents one analyzed GitHub repository. You can download the dataset in various formats such as JSON, HTML, CSV, or Excel.

[
  {
    "full_name": "microsoft/vscode",
    "stars": 165000,
    "forks": 29000,
    "open_issues": 7832,
    "contributors_count": 1842,
    "language": "TypeScript",
    "language_breakdown_pct": {"TypeScript": 92.4, "CSS": 4.1, "JavaScript": 2.1},
    "age_days": 3500,
    "days_since_last_commit": 0.3,
    "stars_per_day": 47.1,
    "fork_to_star_ratio": 0.176,
    "activity_score": 94,
    "maturity_label": "stable",
    "license_type": "MIT",
    "size_tier": "massive",
    "topic_tags": ["editor", "electron", "typescript", "vscode"],
    "latest_releases": [
      {"tag_name": "1.91.0", "published_at": "2026-07-04T00:00:00Z", "prerelease": false}
    ],
    "is_fork": false,
    "is_archived": false,
    "analyzed_at": "2026-09-02T10:15:00Z"
  }
]

Data fields

Field	Type	Description
full_name	string	Repository slug (owner/repo)
stars	integer	Total GitHub stars count
forks	integer	Total forks count
open_issues	integer	Open issues and pull requests
watchers	integer	Watcher count
contributors_count	integer	Total unique contributors
language	string	Primary programming language
language_breakdown_pct	object	Language distribution as percentage
age_days	float	Days since repository creation
days_since_last_commit	float	Days since last push
stars_per_day	float	Star growth velocity (stars / age_days)
fork_to_star_ratio	float	Forks divided by stars
activity_score	integer	0–100 composite health score (recency + velocity + community)
maturity_label	string	growing / stable / legacy / abandoned
license_type	string	MIT / Apache / GPL / other / none
size_tier	string	tiny / small / medium / large / massive
topic_tags	array	Repository topic tags
latest_releases	array	Latest 3 releases with tag, name, and date
is_fork	boolean	Whether the repo is a fork
is_archived	boolean	Whether the repo is archived
analyzed_at	string	ISO 8601 timestamp of the analysis

Maturity labels explained:

Label	Criteria
abandoned	No commit in 365+ days
legacy	No commit in 180+ days, or age > 5 years with low recent activity
stable	Active, well-established repository
growing	Recent activity, rapid star growth, or young repo

Cost estimation

This actor uses Pay-Per-Event (PPE) pricing.

Scenario	Repos	Cost
Single repo check	1	$0.006
Small portfolio (10 repos)	10	$0.051
Medium portfolio (50 repos)	50	$0.251
Large portfolio (200 repos)	200	$1.001

Pricing breakdown:

• $0.001 — actor start (one-time per run)
• $0.005 — per GitHub repository successfully analyzed

Each repo uses approximately 4 GitHub API calls (repo metadata, languages, contributors, releases). At 60 req/hr unauthenticated, you can analyze ~15 repos/hr. With a token: ~1,250 repos/hr.

FAQ

Do I need a GitHub API key? No API key is required for public repositories. Providing a GitHub Personal Access Token raises your rate limit from 60 to 5,000 requests per hour, which is necessary for large batch runs.

How is this different from the GitHub Trending Tracker? The GitHub Repository Analytics actor fetches detailed metrics for specific repos you name. The GitHub Trending Tracker discovers what repos are currently viral across the platform. Use both together: discover trends, then deep-dive into specific repos with full analytics.

Can I track private repositories? Yes, if you provide a GitHub PAT with access to those repositories. The token is stored securely as a secret input and never logged or exposed.

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Disclaimer: This actor uses the public GitHub REST API and is subject to GitHub's Terms of Service and rate limits. Data is fetched at a point in time and does not constitute a real-time feed. This actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by GitHub, Inc.

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Related actors

• GitHub Trending Tracker — Discover trending repos then deep-dive with this actor's analytics
• GitHub CI Monitor — CI/CD workflow health for repos analyzed by this actor
• GitHub Issues Tracker — Open issues and bug trends for repositories tracked in this actor

Feedback

If this actor powers your open source research, a review helps others find it: Leave a review on Apify Store

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Keywords: GitHub repo analytics, repository metrics, GitHub stars, fork tracker, contributor analysis, language breakdown, release tracker, repo health metrics, activity score, GitHub insights, open source analytics, repo maturity, GitHub data