What 437 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
437
JavaScript
Median score
54
out of 100
Median stars
52
GitHub stars
Median age
3.3 yr
260 measured
Ship releases
27%
268 measured
Are forks
9%
260 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 52med. 54HIDDEN GEMS46 · 14%EXEMPLARY160 · 49%NEEDS WORK59 · 18%VIRAL, MESSY59 · 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=5110-100n=87100-1kn=1231k-10kn=2610k+n=37

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 JavaScript. Based on 358 repos.

Quality gap, by dimension

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

Documentation+52pp
A/B
87%
D/F
35%

4 checks averaged

Engineering+55pp
A/B
88%
D/F
33%

6 checks averaged

Project health+33pp
A/B
97%
D/F
64%

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%Tests+76ppCI/CD+67ppIssue and PR templates+62ppLinting and formatting+60ppContributing guide+55ppInstall and run instructions+54ppREADME+52ppLicense+48ppReproducibility+34ppActivity+33ppRepository metadata+33ppDependency manifest+33pp

All checks

CheckA / B pass rateD / F pass rateGap
Tests
99%
23%
+76
CI/CD
81%
14%
+67
Issue and PR templates
71%
9%
+62
Linting and formatting
88%
28%
+60
Contributing guide
63%
8%
+55
Install and run instructions
90%
36%
+54
README
97%
45%
+52
License
97%
49%
+48
Reproducibility
93%
59%
+34
Activity
97%
64%
+33
Repository metadata
96%
63%
+33
Dependency manifest
97%
64%
+33

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
47
Forks
45

Forks score 2 points lower on average (23 forks of 260 measured)

Archived (read-only)0%

0 of 260 measured

Ship releases27%

72 of 268 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 19 topics
1javascript
19
79
2ai
14
62
3nodejs
13
66
4openai
10
60
5chatgpt
9
57
6userscripts
8
57
7chatbot
8
57
8greasemonkey
8
57
9llm
8
74
10machine-learning
7
57
11react
6
88
12chat
6
60
13gpt-5
6
57
14hacktoberfest
6
86
15nlp
6
60
16claude-code
6
78
17artificial-intelligence
5
57
18gpt
5
57
19proxy
5
47