How starwire works
Where the repos come from, how they're checked, and exactly how every list is ranked. If something here doesn't match what you see, tell us.
Last changed November 7, 2026. Every change to the method is listed at the bottom.
- Where repos come from
- What gets listed
- How often it updates
- Categories and descriptions
- How Trending works
- The other sorts and labels
- What never affects ranking
- Known limits
- Changes to the method
Where repos come from
A repo lands on starwire when someone points at it. We collect four kinds of picks:
- Developer curators who post open source projects for their followers. We read the repo link from each post.
- Hacker News stories that link to a GitHub repo and reach 30 points, or 20 for Show HN.
- GitHub Trending, the weekly list.
- Reader submissions through the submission form. Your own projects are welcome; the form asks you to say so.
Each of these counts as a separate source. A repo picked by several of them is shown as picked 2×, picked 3× and so on.
What gets listed
- The repo must be public on GitHub and not archived.
- Submissions need at least 10 stars. Every submission gets a reply on its issue with the result.
- New repos are reviewed on each update. Anything that looks like spam, malware or isn't open source software is hidden.
- A repo that is deleted, made private or archived drops off on the next refresh.
Listing a repo isn't an endorsement or a security review. Read the code and the license before you run anything.
How often it updates
| What | How often |
|---|---|
| Looking for new repos, handling submissions | Every two days |
| Stars, forks, open issues and pull requests, last commit, license, renames | Every day, for every listed repo |
| Star history used by Trending | One count per repo per day, kept daily for 90 days and weekly after that |
The data behind the site is public: repos.json, and an RSS feed of new picks.
Categories and descriptions
Each new repo is put in one of 15 categories and gets a one-line description, written by an AI model (Claude) from the repo's own description and README, following fixed rules: say what it does in plain words, no hype. Submitters can suggest a category. These are the parts most likely to be wrong, so if one is, open an issue with the repo link and we'll fix it.
How Trending works
Trending shows repos gaining stars fastest right now for their size. It uses only stars we measured ourselves.
1. Stars gained in the last 7 days
Every day we record each repo's star count. The gain is today's count minus the count from 7 days ago.
- A repo created less than 7 days ago gained all its stars this week, so its gain is its star count.
- While we have fewer than 7 days of counts for a repo, it shows only the days measured, as
+255 in 1 day. Nothing is projected forward. - For a repo under 30 days old, the missing days are filled with its own average since it was created. That's an estimate, so it's marked with a
~, as in~+700 a week.
2. Adjusted for size
A repo with 200,000 stars picks up hundreds a week out of habit. A small one gaining the same is far more remarkable. So the ranking divides the gain by the square root of the repo's size:
heat = stars gained in 7 days / √(stars + 100)
The square root keeps big repos in the running without letting them drown out small ones, and the + 100 stops a brand new repo with a handful of stars from jumping to the top on its first few. A repo needs at least 50 stars in the week to appear in Trending at all.
Example: +2,000 stars on a 3,000-star repo scores 2,000 / √3,100 ≈ 36. The same +2,000 on a 100,000-star repo scores about 6.
The other sorts and labels
| Sort | Order |
|---|---|
| Most picked | Number of different sources that picked the repo. Each source counts once, however often it posts. Ties go to more stars. |
| Trending | Heat, as above |
| Most stars | Current stars |
| Newest picks | The date a repo was first picked by any source |
| Recently updated | The last commit to the repo |
| Recently saved | Your own saves, newest first. Saves stay in your browser. |
| Label | Meaning |
|---|---|
| new | First picked in the 7 days before the latest update |
| picked 3× | Picked by 3 different sources |
| Green dot, updated 5d ago | Last commit under 30 days ago |
| Amber dot, updated 4mo ago | Last commit under a year ago |
| Grey dot, quiet 2y | No commits for a year or more |
What never affects ranking
- No one can pay to be listed or ranked higher.
- The StarDash card in the list and in repo panels is our own project, made by the same person who makes starwire. It's always labelled and never changes the order.
- There are no accounts, no analytics and no tracking scripts. Your saves stay in your browser.
- The README previews load from GitHub, and the two libraries that render them load from cdnjs with integrity checks, so a tampered copy is refused.
Known limits
- Daily star counts started on November 6, 2026. Until about November 13, many repos show fewer than 7 days of gains.
- Bought or fake stars aren't detected yet. A sudden jump with no forks, issues or commits to match is a warning sign. Detection is the next thing we're building.
- Picks come from what curators and readers find, so some corners of open source are better covered than others. Submissions help fill the gaps.
Changes to the method
- Nov 7, 2026. Trending uses only measured star gains. Before, a repo's lifetime average was projected forward, which made big repos look like they were still at their launch pace.
- Nov 7, 2026. Stars and repo facts refresh every day instead of every two days.
- Nov 7, 2026. Save repos for later, kept in your browser.
- Nov 6, 2026. Daily star history begins.