# GitHub Repo Search & Stats: Stars, Topics, Releases (`swiftkit/github-repos`) Actor

Search GitHub repositories with GitHub's own query syntax (topic, language, stars, dates) or look up a list of repos: stars, forks, issues, topics, license, last push, plus optional latest release, contributor count, language breakdown and README. Official GitHub API. $1 per 1,000 repos.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/swiftkit/github-repos.md
- **Developed by:** [SwiftKit](https://apify.com/swiftkit) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, AI, Automation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$1.00 / 1,000 repositories

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## GitHub Repo Search & Stats: Stars, Topics, Releases

Search GitHub repositories, or look up a list of them, and get clean rows from the **official
GitHub API**:

- **Search** with GitHub's own syntax: `topic:web-scraping stars:>500`,
  `"vector database" language:rust`, `created:>2026-01-01 stars:>100`, sorted by stars, forks,
  recent updates or best match
- **Look up** a list of repositories (`owner/name` or GitHub links)
- **Per repo:** stars, forks, open issues, language, topics, license, homepage, owner and owner
  type (user or organization), created / updated / last push dates, archived, fork, size
- **Optional details:** latest release (tag and date), contributor count, language breakdown in %,
  and the README text

### Who it's for

- **Developer-tool founders and DevRel:** track your project and competitors, find adjacent projects.
- **Investors and analysts:** spot fast-growing open-source projects in a category.
- **Researchers:** datasets of repositories by topic, language and activity.
- **AI pipelines:** READMEs of the top repos in a field as context.

### Input

| Option | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| What to get | Search | Search or look up specific repos |
| Search: queries | – | GitHub search syntax, one per line |
| Search: sort by | Stars | Stars, forks, recently updated, best match |
| Search: max repos per query | 100 | Up to 1,000 (GitHub's limit per query) |
| Look up: repositories | – | `owner/name` or links |
| Include release, contributors and languages | off | 3 extra requests per repo |
| Include README | off | 1 extra request per repo |
| GitHub token | – | Optional, raises the limits (stored encrypted) |

### Output

A real lookup:

```json
{
  "status": "ok",
  "fullName": "apify/crawlee",
  "url": "https://github.com/apify/crawlee",
  "stars": 25979,
  "language": "TypeScript",
  "license": "Apache-2.0",
  "ownerType": "Organization",
  "latestRelease": { "tag": "v3.18.2", "name": "v3.18.2", "publishedAt": "2026-09-29T09:58:35Z" },
  "contributors": 151,
  "languages": { "TypeScript": 62.1, "MDX": 31, "JavaScript": 5.4, "CSS": 0.9, "Dockerfile": 0.7 }
}
```

### Limits (GitHub's), honestly

- **Search returns at most 1,000 repositories per query.** Split big searches by stars, language or
  creation date to go further.
- **Without a token:** 10 searches per minute and 60 detail requests per hour. The tool waits for
  the limit window automatically, but details for many repos need a token (free, no scopes needed).
- Public repositories only. No user profiles, emails or followers: this is about repositories.

### Use it from your AI agent (MCP)

Claude, Cursor and other MCP clients can call this tool directly through Apify's MCP server. Add it as
an MCP server / connector:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=swiftkit/github-repos",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer <YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>" }
    }
  }
}
```

Then just ask, for example: *"Find the 20 most-starred Rust vector database repositories updated this year"*. Each call is billed like a normal run.

### Pricing

You pay **per repository row**. Errors and not-found repos are free. See the Pricing tab.

### More tools from SwiftKit

- [Hacker News Scraper](https://apify.com/swiftkit/hacker-news): what developers are discussing, Show HN launches, hiring threads
- [Tech Stack Detector](https://apify.com/swiftkit/tech-stack): what websites are built with
- [Website to Markdown for AI](https://apify.com/swiftkit/web-to-markdown): clean page content for LLMs

### Questions?

Open an issue on the Issues tab.

# Actor input Schema

## `mode` (type: `string`):

Search uses GitHub's search syntax; Look up takes a list of repositories.

## `queries` (type: `array`):

GitHub search syntax, e.g. topic:web-scraping stars:>500, "vector database" language:rust, created:>2026-01-01 stars:>100. One search per line.

## `sort` (type: `string`):

Order of search results.

## `maxResultsPerQuery` (type: `integer`):

GitHub returns at most 1,000 results per query; narrow the query to see more.

## `repos` (type: `array`):

owner/name or https://github.com/owner/name, one per line.

## `includeDetails` (type: `boolean`):

Latest release, contributor count and language breakdown. Uses 3 extra GitHub requests per repo: without a token GitHub allows 60 per hour, so add a token for more than ~20 repos.

## `includeReadme` (type: `boolean`):

README text (first 50,000 characters). One extra request per repo.

## `githubToken` (type: `string`):

Your own GitHub personal access token (no scopes needed for public repos) raises the limits: search 30/min, details 5,000/hour. It's stored encrypted and only sent to GitHub.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mode": "search",
  "queries": [
    "topic:web-scraping stars:>1000"
  ],
  "sort": "stars",
  "maxResultsPerQuery": 100,
  "includeDetails": false,
  "includeReadme": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

One row per repository.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "queries": [
        "topic:web-scraping stars:>1000"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("swiftkit/github-repos").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "queries": ["topic:web-scraping stars:>1000"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("swiftkit/github-repos").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "queries": [
    "topic:web-scraping stars:>1000"
  ]
}' |
apify call swiftkit/github-repos --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,swiftkit/github-repos"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/SG3Ikrk1MCHLqn8ug/builds/csZBC7YOHe90iWAU5/openapi.json