GitHub Repository Intelligence: Stars, Forks & Releases

Fetch GitHub repository metadata in bulk: stars, forks, watchers, open issues, license, topics, language breakdown, latest release, activity dates. Search repositories with qualifiers or list all repos of an owner. Optional token for higher rate limits.

What does GitHub Repository Intelligence do?

Get GitHub repo metadata in bulk, search repositories, or list every repo of a user/org.

What can you use it for?

• Track stars, forks and release cadence of competitor or dependency repositories.
• Discover popular repositories by topic, language and star count.
• Export all repositories of an organisation with activity dates.
• Score open-source projects by maintenance signals.

Why use this Actor?

• Fast and cheap: lightweight HTTP-based Actor with no browser, so runs finish in seconds and cost very little.
• No API keys or accounts needed for the data source (see notes below).
• Clean, structured JSON that you can export as CSV, Excel, JSON or XML, or pull through the Apify API and integrations.
• Scheduling, webhooks and integrations: run it daily and send results to Google Sheets, Slack, Zapier, Make, n8n or your own API.

Input

Configure the run in the Input tab (all fields have sensible defaults).

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
mode	string (repos / search / owner)	no	"repos"	What to fetch.
repositories	array of strings	no	-	For 'repos' mode: owner/name or full GitHub URLs.
searchQuery	string	no	-	For 'search' mode. Supports GitHub qualifiers, e.g. web scraper language:typescript stars:>500 topic:crawler.
searchSort	string (stars / forks / updated / help-wanted-issues / best-match)	no	"stars"	Ordering of search results.
owner	string	no	-	For 'owner' mode, e.g. apify.
includeDetails	boolean	no	false	Adds the language breakdown and latest release (two extra API requests per repository). Recommended together with a GitHub token.
maxResults	integer	no	30	Maximum repositories to return (GitHub search returns at most 1000).
githubToken	string	no	-	A personal access token (no scopes needed) raises the GitHub rate limit from 60 to 5000 requests/hour. Marked secret: it is stored encrypted and never shown in logs.

Example input

{
  "repositories": [
    "apify/crawlee",
    "microsoft/vscode",
    "facebook/react"
  ]
}

Output

Results are stored in the default dataset. Download them from the Output tab or via the API.

Example result

{
  "fullName": "apify/crawlee",
  "url": "https://github.com/apify/crawlee",
  "description": "Crawlee—A web scraping and browser automation library for Node.js to build reliable crawlers. In JavaScript and TypeScript. Extract data for AI, LLMs, RAG, o...",
  "owner": "apify",
  "ownerType": "Organization",
  "stars": 25860,
  "forks": 1677,
  "watchers": 136,
  "openIssues": 151,
  "language": "TypeScript",
  "license": "Apache-2.0",
  "topics": [
    "apify",
    "automation",
    "crawler"
  ],
  "homepage": "https://crawlee.dev",
  "defaultBranch": "master",
  "createdAt": "2016-08-26T18:35:03Z",
  "pushedAt": "2026-09-21T10:10:28Z",
  "updatedAt": "2026-09-21T10:10:36Z",
  "sizeKb": 174569,
  "archived": false,
  "isFork": false,
  "hasIssues": true,
  "hasDiscussions": true,
  "parent": null,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-09-21T11:36:30.769Z"
}

Output fields

Field	Type	Example
fullName	string	"apify/crawlee"
url	string	"https://github.com/apify/crawlee"
description	string	"Crawlee—A web scraping and browser automation library fo...
owner	string	"apify"
ownerType	string	"Organization"
stars	number	25860
forks	number	1677
watchers	number	136
openIssues	number	151
language	string	"TypeScript"
license	string	"Apache-2.0"
topics	array	["apify","automation","crawler"]
homepage	string	"https://crawlee.dev"
defaultBranch	string	"master"
createdAt	string	"2016-08-26T18:35:03Z"
pushedAt	string	"2026-09-21T10:10:28Z"
updatedAt	string	"2026-09-21T10:10:36Z"
sizeKb	number	174569
archived	boolean	false
isFork	boolean	false
hasIssues	boolean	true
hasDiscussions	boolean	true
parent	null	null
scrapedAt	string	"2026-09-21T11:36:30.769Z"

How much does it cost?

The Actor is billed by Apify according to the pricing shown on the Pricing tab of this page. Runs are small and fast, and the Apify Free plan includes monthly platform credits so you can try it at no cost. You can set a maximum cost per run, and the Actor stops cleanly when that limit is reached.

Notes and limitations

• Anonymous GitHub API calls are limited to 60 per hour per IP; add a GitHub token (no scopes needed) for 5000 per hour. The token is a secret input field.
• By default one API request is used per repository. "Include languages and latest release" adds two more, so use it together with a token.
• If the rate limit is hit, the Actor keeps the results it already collected and stops with a clear message.

Tips

• Start with a small test run, then scale up the input.
• Use Schedules to automate recurring runs and Webhooks or Integrations to deliver the data where you need it.
• Call the Actor from your code with the Apify API or the official JavaScript and Python clients.

FAQ

Why did the run stop with a rate-limit message?

The GitHub API limit was reached. Provide a token or retry after the reset time shown in the message.

Feedback

Found a bug or need an extra field? Open an issue from the Issues tab of this Actor and it will be looked at quickly.

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