GitHub Repo Stats

2026-05-07 · Source: Simon Willison's Weblog · Field: Technology & Digital — Software Development & Engineering, Data Science & Analytics · Depth: Fundamental Awareness, quick

Summary

A new web-based tool, GitHub Repo Stats, provides comprehensive statistics for any GitHub repository by fetching data directly from the GitHub REST API. Users can input a repository name or URL to view metrics such as commit counts, contributor details, language distribution, stars, forks, branches, tags, and activity timestamps. The tool addresses the absence of commit counts on GitHub's mobile site and offers an optional GitHub authentication feature to increase the API rate limit from 60 to 5,000 requests per hour. Example outputs are available for "simonw/datasette" and "simonw/llm".

Key takeaway

For software engineers evaluating new GitHub repositories or monitoring project health, you should integrate the GitHub Repo Stats tool into your workflow. It provides crucial metrics like commit counts and contributor activity not readily available on GitHub's mobile interface, helping you make informed decisions about project viability and engagement.

Key insights

GitHub Repo Stats offers detailed repository metrics via the GitHub REST API, enhancing mobile site functionality.

Principles

• Direct API access for data retrieval
• User authentication for increased rate limits

Method

The tool uses a browser-based CORS fetch() to retrieve repository data from the GitHub REST API, processing a given URL or "foo/bar" ID.

In practice

• Evaluate new GitHub repositories quickly
• Monitor project activity and contributions

Topics

• GitHub Repo Stats
• GitHub REST API
• Repository Metrics
• API Rate Limiting
• Commit History

Best for: Software Engineer, Director of AI/ML, Research Scientist

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Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by Simon Willison's Weblog.