What 289 graded repositories reveal

Every repo RepoGrade scores feeds these aggregates: how quality tracks reach, age, and maintenance, and what separates the best repos from the rest.

Repositories
289
C++
Median score
69
out of 100
Median stars
1,163
GitHub stars
Median age
5.8 yr
185 measured
Ship releases
58%
186 measured
Are forks
5%
185 measured

How the corpus scores

Each dot is a repo, colored by grade. Corpus medians divide the four quadrants. Distributions below show the same data sliced by band and popularity tier.

Quality vs popularity

Hover a region to highlight it and see counts. Toggle the X axis between stars and contributors.

X axis
median 1kmed. 69HIDDEN GEMS47 · 17%EXEMPLARY97 · 35%NEEDS WORK82 · 30%VIRAL, MESSY48 · 18%02550751001101001k10k100kStars (log scale)Score

Score distribution

Repos per 10-point band, colored by grade

Score by popularity tier

Box = P25-P75, line = median, whisker = P10-P90. Colored by grade.

Group by
0204060708090100ABCDF< 10n=1210-100n=20100-1kn=921k-10kn=4910k+n=101

GitHub stars · box = P25-P75, line = median, whisker = P10-P90

Scores climb steadily with popularity

Median score within each star tier. The grade mix hides this because most repos have few stars - but quality and reach rise together.

What top repos do that the rest don't

Average pass rate for A/B vs D/F repos, by dimension and by check. Filtered to C++. Based on 226 repos.

Quality gap, by dimension

Average check pass rate across all checks in each category, for top-graded vs. bottom-graded repos.

Documentation+39pp
A/B
91%
D/F
52%

4 checks averaged

Engineering+55pp
A/B
82%
D/F
27%

6 checks averaged

Project health+14pp
A/B
99%
D/F
85%

2 checks averaged

Pass rates side by side

Each row is one check. Filled = A/B pass rate, hollow = D/F. +Npp = percentage-point gap.

D/F passA/B pass0%25%50%75%100%Issue and PR templates+71ppReproducibility+70ppDependency manifest+63ppContributing guide+62ppLinting and formatting+58ppInstall and run instructions+43ppTests+42ppREADME+35ppCI/CD+25ppLicense+17ppActivity+17ppRepository metadata+11pp

All checks

CheckA / B pass rateD / F pass rateGap
Issue and PR templates
96%
25%
+71
Reproducibility
87%
17%
+70
Dependency manifest
96%
33%
+63
Contributing guide
82%
20%
+62
Linting and formatting
71%
13%
+58
Install and run instructions
87%
44%
+43
Tests
100%
58%
+42
README
96%
61%
+35
CI/CD
41%
16%
+25
License
100%
83%
+17
Activity
99%
82%
+17
Repository metadata
99%
88%
+11

Does a better grade attract more attention?

Median traction signals per grade band. Toggle across stars, forks, watchers, open issues, and contributors.

Median traction by grade

Toggle across stars, forks, watchers, issues, contributors

Metric

How actively are repos maintained?

Release discipline and project posture signals - the upkeep story behind a grade.

Release discipline by grade

Share of repos shipping at least one tagged release, per grade band

Project posture

Fork quality penalty, archived repos, and release cadence

Quality: forks vs. original repos

Originals
66
Forks
57

Forks score 9 points lower on average (9 forks of 185 measured)

Archived (read-only)0%

0 of 185 measured

Ship releases58%

107 of 186 measured

Does age or size move the score?

Median score across how long a repo has existed and how large it is on disk.

Score by repo age

Median score across age cohorts

Score by repo size

Median score across size on disk

Most common topics, by quality

Topics repos tag themselves with - ranked by frequency, with the median score of all repos carrying each tag.

Top 12 topics
1cpp
16
73
2linux
13
69
3windows
13
68
4macos
9
76
5c-plus-plus
8
70
6hacktoberfest
7
79
7gpu
6
83
8cuda
6
83
9ai
5
84
10inference
5
81
11game-development
5
61
12python
5
82