Repo Scout

Discover breakout open-source repositories by detecting rapid star velocity on GitHub and GitLab.

Overview

Repo Scout is an Apify Actor designed for DevRel, Developer Marketing, and Platform Partnerships teams. It continuously monitors GitHub and GitLab to identify repositories experiencing rapid star growth ("breakout" projects) before they become mainstream.

Use Cases

• Early Partnership Opportunities: Identify promising developer tools for integrations
• Sponsorship Discovery: Find high-potential projects for sponsorship
• Competitive Intelligence: Track emerging technologies in your space
• Developer Advocacy: Discover tools to feature in content and talks

Pricing

Results	Cost
100	$0.50
500	$2.50
1,000	$5.00

Pay per result — You only pay for repositories discovered. Platform compute costs included.

Quick Start

1. Click "Start" on the Actor page
2. Configure inputs:
   • Set languages to your target languages (e.g., ["TypeScript", "Python"])
   • Adjust minStarsDelta based on how strict you want filtering (default: 100)
3. Run the Actor
4. View results in the Output tab — each row is a breakout repository

Example: Find Trending Rust CLI Tools

{
  "languages": ["Rust"],
  "minStarsDelta": 50,
  "timeWindowHours": 24,
  "platforms": ["github"],
  "maxResults": 25,
  "excludeForks": true
}

Scheduled Monitoring

Set up weekly alerts for new breakout projects:

1. Go to Schedules in your Apify Console
2. Create a new schedule with cron: 0 9 * * 1 (Every Monday at 9 AM)
3. Select Repo Scout as the Actor
4. Configure your input (languages, platforms, etc.)
5. Optional: Add a webhook to receive Slack/email notifications

Input Configuration

Field	Type	Default	Description
languages	array	required	Programming languages to filter (e.g., ["JavaScript", "Python"])
minStarsDelta	integer	100	Minimum stars gained within time window
timeWindowHours	integer	48	Time window in hours for velocity detection
platforms	array	["github"]	Platforms to scan: github, gitlab
maxResults	integer	50	Maximum repositories to return
sinceDate	string	null	Only repos created after this date (ISO format)
excludeForks	boolean	true	Exclude forked repositories
minTotalStars	integer	50	Minimum current star count
githubToken	string	null	GitHub PAT for higher rate limits
gitlabToken	string	null	GitLab PAT for higher rate limits

Output Schema

Each dataset item contains:

{
  "repositoryName": "awesome-tool",
  "platform": "github",
  "url": "https://github.com/owner/awesome-tool",
  "description": "A fast CLI tool for developers",
  "primaryLanguage": "Rust",
  "starsCurrent": 2500,
  "starsGained": 150,
  "velocityStarsPerDay": 75.5,
  "createdAt": "2025-12-01T00:00:00Z",
  "detectedAt": "2026-01-17T16:00:00Z",
  "owner": "owner",
  "topics": ["cli", "developer-tools", "rust"],
  "license": "MIT",
  "whyItMatters": "A Rust fast-growing project gaining approximately 75.5 stars per day, focused on CLI tooling, tagged with cli, developer-tools, rust, with 2.5K total stars."
}

Rate Limits

Without API Tokens (Free)

• GitHub: 60 requests/hour (limited discovery)
• GitLab: 400 requests/10 minutes

With API Tokens

• GitHub: 5,000 requests/hour
• GitLab: 2,000 requests/10 minutes

Recommendation: For production use, provide API tokens for reliable operation.

Velocity Calculation

The Actor uses two methods to calculate star velocity:

1. Stargazer History (GitHub only): Fetches actual star timestamps to count stars gained within the time window. Most accurate.

2. Creation Date Approximation: When history is unavailable, estimates velocity as total_stars / repo_age_days. Less accurate but works for all repositories.

FAQ

Q: Why am I getting fewer results than expected?
A: The minStarsDelta filter is strict. Try lowering it (e.g., from 100 to 25) or increasing timeWindowHours.

Q: How do I get more accurate velocity data?
A: Provide a githubToken — this enables fetching actual stargazer timestamps instead of approximations.

Q: Can I filter by specific topics?
A: Not directly in input, but results include topics array. Use Apify's dataset filtering to post-process.

Q: How often should I run this?
A: Weekly is ideal for most use cases. Daily runs may return duplicates if velocity hasn't changed.

Integrations

Webhook (Slack, Zapier, etc.)

Add a webhook URL in your Apify task settings to receive notifications when new breakout repos are discovered.

Export Options

Results can be exported as:

• JSON
• CSV
• Excel
• RSS feed (via Apify dataset API)

Local Development

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build TypeScript
npm run build

# Run locally with Apify CLI
npx apify run --input-file=./test-input.json

Deployment

# Deploy to Apify platform
npx apify push

Extensibility

Future enhancements:

• Slack Alerts: Webhook notifications for new breakout repos
• CRM Integration: Push discoveries to HubSpot/Salesforce
• Trend Analysis: Store historical data in Key-Value Store

License

MIT