GitHub Repository Stats Tracker

GitHub Repository Stats Tracker collects stars, forks, open issues, watchers, topics, contributors, license, and latest release for any GitHub repository — either by explicit repo names (facebook/react) or by GitHub search query (language:python stars:>5000). No API key required; add a GitHub token to increase the rate limit from 60 to 5,000 requests per hour.

Use it to monitor OSS project growth, screen competitive repositories, build trending developer dashboards, or track library adoption over time.

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Why use GitHub Repository Stats Tracker?

1. OSS competitive intelligence — Track stars and forks for competing libraries. A sudden spike in stars signals a viral moment; compare fork velocity to gauge developer adoption vs. passive interest.
2. Tech stack screening — Search by language:python stars:>1000 topic:machine-learning to find well-maintained ML libraries. Use open issue count and last push date to filter out abandoned projects.
3. Developer ecosystem monitoring — Monitor a curated list of repos in your tech stack to catch major releases, license changes, or deprecation signals.
4. VC / accelerator research — Track open-source startups: rising stars, accelerating contributor growth, and release cadence are leading indicators of developer-led company traction.
5. Portfolio tracking for OSS maintainers — Pull stats for all your own repos in one run. Monitor which projects are growing and which need attention.

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How to use

1. Open the actor on Apify Store and click Try for free.
2. Either paste specific repos into repos (e.g. ["vercel/next.js", "facebook/react"]), or set a searchQuery to discover repos matching criteria.
3. Enable includeReleases to get latest release tag and publish date.
4. Optionally add a githubToken to avoid rate limiting on large searches.
5. Click Start. One result record per repository.

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Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
repos	string[]	[]	Explicit repos in owner/repo format (e.g. ["facebook/react"])
searchQuery	string	""	GitHub search query (e.g. "language:rust stars:>500") — used when repos is empty
searchSort	string	"stars"	Sort search results by: stars, forks, updated
maxResults	integer	50	Maximum repos to return (1–1000)
githubToken	string	""	GitHub Personal Access Token (raises rate limit from 60 to 5000 req/hour)
includeReleases	boolean	false	Include latest release tag, URL, and publish date
includeLicenseText	boolean	false	Include full license text (increases output size)

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Output

{
  "owner": "vercel",
  "repo": "next.js",
  "full_name": "vercel/next.js",
  "description": "The React Framework",
  "stars": 127450,
  "forks": 27800,
  "open_issues": 2340,
  "watchers": 127450,
  "language": "TypeScript",
  "topics": ["react", "nextjs", "vercel", "ssr", "static-site-generation"],
  "license": "MIT",
  "created_at": "2016-10-05T19:09:40Z",
  "updated_at": "2026-08-29T14:22:01Z",
  "pushed_at": "2026-08-29T12:00:00Z",
  "size_kb": 524288,
  "default_branch": "main",
  "is_fork": false,
  "is_archived": false,
  "has_wiki": true,
  "homepage": "https://nextjs.org",
  "html_url": "https://github.com/vercel/next.js",
  "latest_release": {
    "tag_name": "v14.2.5",
    "published_at": "2026-08-15T10:00:00Z",
    "html_url": "https://github.com/vercel/next.js/releases/tag/v14.2.5"
  }
}

Output fields

Field	Type	Description
full_name	string	owner/repo format
stars	integer	GitHub star count
forks	integer	Number of forks
open_issues	integer	Open issues + PRs
watchers	integer	Watchers count
language	string	Primary programming language
topics	string[]	Repository topic tags
license	string	SPDX license identifier (e.g. MIT, Apache-2.0)
created_at	string	ISO 8601 repository creation date
pushed_at	string	Date of last code push
is_archived	boolean	True if the repository is archived/read-only
latest_release	object	Latest release info if includeReleases: true

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Cost estimation

Pay-Per-Event: $0.005 per actor start + $0.003 per repository returned.

Use case	Repos	Estimated cost
10 specific repos	10	~$0.03/run
Top 50 Python ML repos	50	~$0.15/run
200-repo ecosystem scan	200	~$0.60/run
Daily trending (50 repos)	50	~$0.15/day

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FAQ

What's the difference between stars and watchers? On GitHub, watchers count = star count for most repos (GitHub changed the behavior in 2012). Watchers in the output reflects the subscription-based watcher count. The stars field is the correct measure of popularity.

Does open_issues include pull requests? Yes — GitHub's API combines open issues and open PRs in the open_issues_count field. Use it as a proxy for project activity, not strict issue count.

How does rate limiting work without a token? The GitHub Search API allows 10 requests per minute and 60 per hour without a token. For repos by name (not search), the limit is also 60/hour. With a githubToken, limits increase to 30 search requests/minute and 5000/hour.

Can I track a GitHub organization's repos? Yes — use searchQuery: "org:microsoft" to return all public repositories for an organization. Combine with searchSort: "stars" and maxResults: 100 to get the top 100 repos.

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Related actors

• PyPI Package Analyzer — Download stats and metadata for Python packages (complements GitHub stars for Python libs)
• Startup Funding Tracker — Funding rounds for developer-led companies with OSS repos
• Reddit Subreddit Tracker — Developer community sentiment around the same projects

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