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Bennett Schwartz
Bennett Schwartz

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I built a global leaderboard that ranks developers by their all-time GitHub commits

#github #opensource #webdev #website

Ever wondered how your commit count stacks up against other developers? I built ghcommits.com — a public leaderboard that ranks
developers by their all-time GitHub commits.

What it does

Connect your GitHub account, and the app counts every commit you've ever made (public + private repos, including org contributions) using GitHub's GraphQL
API. You get:

  • A global ranking with your percentile (e.g. "Rank #42 · Top 3%")
  • A profile page at ghcommits.com/u/your-username with your stats
  • An embeddable badge for your README showing your rank
  • A compare tool to go head-to-head with other developers
  • Commit growth tracking over time with a visual chart

The badge

Once you sign up, you get an SVG badge you can drop in any README:


![GitHub Commits Badge](https://ghcommits.com/api/badge/YOUR_USERNAME.svg)](https://ghcommits.com/u/YOUR_USERNAME)
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It updates automatically — no CI pipeline needed. The badge links to your profile page where visitors can see your full stats and sign up themselves.

How it works under the hood

  • Next.js 16 on Cloudflare Workers for edge-rendered pages
  • PostgreSQL (Neon) with Hyperdrive connection pooling
  • GitHub OAuth — tokens are AES-encrypted at rest
  • GitHub's GraphQL API — queries contribution data in yearly windows from account creation to present, then does incremental delta updates every 3 days
  • GitHub Primer design system for the UI (the same components GitHub uses)

Commit counting happens in two phases:

  1. First connection: walks yearly windows from your GitHub account creation date to now, summing totalCommitContributions + restrictedContributionsCount
  2. Every 3 days: only queries the delta since last check

The leaderboard also has a public REST API with cursor-based pagination, rate limiting, and edge caching — so you can build on top of it.

Features I'm most proud of

  • Compare tool — Visit /compare/user1/user2 to see a head-to-head breakdown with a bar chart, commit difference callout, and shareable URL with Open Graph
    metadata.

  • Streaming onboarding — When you first connect, the app streams your commit counting progress in real-time using Server-Sent Events. You see a progress bar
    ticking through each year of your GitHub history.

  • Time-based leaderboards — Besides the all-time ranking, there's a "Recent Activity" tab that ranks developers by commits gained in the last 90 days, 6
    months, or year.

It's open source

The whole thing is MIT licensed: https://github.com/GustyCube/GithubCommitsLeaderboard

You can self-host it for your team or org if you want a private leaderboard. The README has full setup instructions for local dev and Cloudflare Workers
deployment.

Try it out

Head to https://ghcommits.com, connect your GitHub, and see where you rank. Takes about 30 seconds.

If you find it interesting, drop a badge in your README — it's a fun conversation starter on your profile.

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