GitHub Trending is a great discovery surface, but it doesn't tell you how much a project actually grew or whether the growth is real. So we do it differently: our job snapshots public repository star counts every day, then ranks by verified net star growth across the complete Monday–Sunday window. No estimates, no vibes — just two boundary snapshots per repo.
Here is the verified Top 10 for the week of September 28 – October 4, 2026.
The Top 10
| # | Repository | Weekly ⭐ | Total ⭐ | Language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | HowToLiveBetter | +16,588 | 37,045 | HTML |
| 2 | hindsight | +8,203 | 45,001 | Python |
| 3 | OpenShell | +5,824 | 14,633 | Rust |
| 4 | deepseek-harness | +5,243 | 242,833 | TypeScript |
| 5 | skills | +4,599 | 275,213 | Shell |
| 6 | iFixAi | +4,246 | 19,950 | Python |
| 7 | ECC | +4,174 | 272,017 | JavaScript |
| 8 | brigade | +4,166 | 11,224 | TypeScript |
| 9 | moli | +3,305 | 5,784 | Rust |
| 10 | gods-eye-view | +3,001 | 46,927 | JavaScript |
Each repository name links to our analysis page — install snippets, license notes, and what the project actually does, written from the repo itself.
What stood out this week
HowToLiveBetter (+16,588) took #1 by a wide margin. It's an evidence-based life guide ranked by cost-effectiveness — longevity, first aid, personal finance, legal basics — with every entry citing journal papers and official documents. A "boring but life-changing" repo clearly resonated.
NVIDIA/OpenShell (+5,824) at #3 is notable: a Rust project from NVIDIA crossing 14k total stars this early means serious momentum.
deepseek-ai/deepseek-harness gained another +5,243 but dropped from #1 to #4 — last week's chart was that competitive. It now sits at 242k total stars.
mattpocock/skills and affaan-m/ECC both crossed the 270k total-star mark while still pulling 4k+ weekly gains. Sustained growth at that scale is rare.
How the ranking works
- A daily job captures public repository star counts; the ranking job picks the nearest trustworthy snapshot at each boundary (max 36-hour gap)
- Public, listed repositories only — archived projects and mirrors are excluded
- Both boundary snapshots must exist and net growth must be positive
- Sorted by net gain, then ending star count; ties resolved deterministically
Full methodology: hysenlabs.com/ranking-methodology
The data
The rolling 30-day dataset (top 500 repos) is downloadable as CSV:
https://hysenlabs.com/data/star-growth
Every published weekly chart is an immutable snapshot — past weeks never change, so the archive is citable.
This runs every week. If you want next Monday's chart, follow me here — and if you have ideas for what else should be measured (forks? contributor growth? release cadence?), tell me in the comments.
Top comments (0)