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Alex Spinov
Alex Spinov

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GitHub Has a Free API — Search Repos, List Issues, and Automate Your Workflow Without Paying

#github #api #webdev #beginners

GitHub's REST API is free for everyone — authenticated or not. You can search repositories, read issues, list commits, explore users, and automate your entire Git workflow. The free tier gives you 5,000 requests per hour with a token.

Here's how to use it.

Authentication (Optional but Recommended)

Without a token: 60 requests/hour. With a free personal access token: 5,000 requests/hour.

Create a token at github.com/settings/tokens → "Generate new token (classic)" → select scopes you need.

1. Search Repositories

Find the most popular repos for any topic.

# Top Python web scraping repos
curl -s "https://api.github.com/search/repositories?q=web+scraping+language:python&sort=stars&per_page=5" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ghp_YOUR_TOKEN"
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Response includes: name, description, stars, forks, language, last updated, and more.

2. List Issues 

# Open issues for any public repo
curl -s "https://api.github.com/repos/facebook/react/issues?state=open&per_page=5"
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3. Get User Profile and Repos 

# User info
curl -s "https://api.github.com/users/torvalds"

# Their repos sorted by stars
curl -s "https://api.github.com/users/torvalds/repos?sort=stars&per_page=5"
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4. Get Repository Stats 

# Repo details (stars, forks, watchers, language)
curl -s "https://api.github.com/repos/microsoft/vscode"

# Contributors
curl -s "https://api.github.com/repos/microsoft/vscode/contributors?per_page=5"

# Commit activity (last year, weekly)
curl -s "https://api.github.com/repos/microsoft/vscode/stats/commit_activity"
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5. Python — Trending Repos Tracker 

import requests

TOKEN = "ghp_YOUR_TOKEN"  # Optional but recommended
HEADERS = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {TOKEN}"} if TOKEN else {}

def search_trending(language="python", days=7):
    from datetime import datetime, timedelta
    date = (datetime.now() - timedelta(days=days)).strftime("%Y-%m-%d")

    url = "https://api.github.com/search/repositories"
    params = {
        "q": f"language:{language} created:>{date}",
        "sort": "stars",
        "per_page": 10
    }
    response = requests.get(url, headers=HEADERS, params=params)
    repos = response.json().get("items", [])

    for repo in repos:
        print(f"⭐ {repo['stargazers_count']:>5} | {repo['full_name']}")
        print(f"       {repo['description'][:80] if repo['description'] else 'No description'}")
        print()

search_trending("python", 7)
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6. Node.js — Issue Monitor 

const TOKEN = "ghp_YOUR_TOKEN";

async function getNewIssues(repo, since = "2026-03-01") {
  const res = await fetch(
    `https://api.github.com/repos/${repo}/issues?since=${since}&state=open&per_page=10`,
    { headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${TOKEN}` } }
  );
  const issues = await res.json();

  for (const issue of issues) {
    if (!issue.pull_request) {
      console.log(`#${issue.number}: ${issue.title}`);
      console.log(`  Labels: ${issue.labels.map(l => l.name).join(", ")}`);
      console.log(`  Created: ${issue.created_at}\n`);
    }
  }
}

getNewIssues("vercel/next.js");
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Rate Limits

Auth Method Limit
No token 60 requests/hour
Personal access token 5,000 requests/hour
GitHub App 15,000 requests/hour
GraphQL API 5,000 points/hour

What You Can Build

  • Repo analytics dashboard — track stars, forks, and contributors over time
  • Dependency scanner — check if repos use vulnerable packages
  • Hiring tool — find developers by language, contributions, and location
  • Release monitor — get notified when a project publishes a new release
  • Portfolio generator — auto-build a dev portfolio from GitHub profile
  • Open source leaderboard — rank contributors by commits, PRs, reviews

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