If I can open a repository, run it, and work with it... why can't I simply keep it linked to my profile?
🔗 The problem: GitHub gets in... but it doesn't stay
I really like StackBlitz for one pretty simple reason: you grab a GitHub repository, open it, and within seconds you have a working development environment running directly in your browser.
No installations.
No manual cloning.
No local environment to set up.
You open the project and you're done. 🚀
For compatible repositories — for example, projects built with Astro — it works incredibly well.
Here's a real example:
The problem comes afterward.
Because the project you just opened, ran, and even modified inside StackBlitz is basically ephemeral from the perspective of your public profile.
You can use it.
You can share the link.
You can work on it.
But you can't say:
“I want this repository to permanently appear among my projects.”
And that's where the experience starts to feel a little off.
🧪 Obviously, I tried to find a workaround
Before reaching this conclusion, I tried several things because I thought:
“There has to be some hidden option I'm missing.”
But no. 😅
🔄 Syncing a project
If you create a project directly inside StackBlitz, there isn't a really convenient workflow for later turning it into a synchronized representation of a GitHub repository.
🍴 Creating an internal fork
If you open a repository directly from GitHub, there also isn't a simple option like:
Add to my projects
or
Show on my profile
The project works, but it stays disconnected from your public identity inside StackBlitz.
📚 Using Collections
And this was the solution that made the most sense to me.
StackBlitz already has Collections, which are conceptually perfect for organizing projects.
The problem is that they're designed around projects that live inside StackBlitz.
I can't simply create something like:
SolarisPKN Projects
├── SolarisPKN-Labs
├── SolarisPKN-Stats
├── SolarisPKN-Transport
└── Other repositories
and point each entry to its corresponding GitHub repository opened through StackBlitz.
And that's where the question that ultimately led me to write this appears:
If StackBlitz already knows how to open the repository, why does it need to own the project in order to show it on my profile?
💡 I don't want another GitHub
I think this point is important.
I'm not proposing that StackBlitz clone all of our repositories and store them internally.
That would duplicate infrastructure without much reason.
GitHub already stores the code.
Git already handles versioning.
GitHub already manages permissions, branches, commits, releases, and the entire history.
I don't need StackBlitz to become GitHub.
What I want is much simpler:
Let StackBlitz also act as an index for the projects it can already run.
🗂️ An index, not a mirror
The solution could be extremely lightweight.
If my StackBlitz account is connected to GitHub and I open a compatible repository, StackBlitz could let me mark it as:
⭐ Show on my profile
Internally, it would barely need to store anything beyond metadata.
Conceptually, it could be as simple as:
{
"projects": [
{
"provider": "github",
"repository": "SolarisPKN/SolarisPKN-Labs",
"featured": true
},
{
"provider": "github",
"repository": "SolarisPKN/SolarisPKN-Stats",
"featured": true
}
]
}
That's it.
No need to duplicate the repository.
No need to store hundreds of megabytes.
No need to maintain two sources of truth.
GitHub remains the source of the project.
StackBlitz simply stores the reference.
⚙️ What happens when someone opens the project?
Exactly what happens today.
StackBlitz Profile
│
▼
Indexed Project
│
▼
GitHub Repository
│
▼
StackBlitz WebContainer
│
▼
Runnable Environment
The difference is that now there's a persistent layer that makes the project discoverable from the developer's profile.
The code still lives on GitHub.
StackBlitz simply provides the interactive experience.
🧠 And I think this would be better for StackBlitz too
There's something a little paradoxical about the current workflow.
One of StackBlitz's most powerful features is precisely its ability to run external projects...
...but afterward, those same projects practically disappear from the platform's social ecosystem.
That significantly limits the value of the public profile.
A developer could have:
- 30 public repositories on GitHub
- 15 projects perfectly compatible with StackBlitz
- several fully functional web projects
and still open their StackBlitz profile and find it practically empty.
🤨
From a technical standpoint, it works.
From a Developer Experience standpoint, it feels incomplete.
🌐 GitHub as the backend, StackBlitz as the experience
I think that's the core idea.
Don't turn StackBlitz into another repository hosting platform.
Instead, make better use of the relationship between both platforms.
GitHub
It handles:
- Code
- Git
- Commits
- Issues
- Releases
- Branches
- Permissions
- History
StackBlitz
It handles:
- Running the project
- Presenting it
- Letting people try it
- Creating an instant development environment
- Turning a repository into an interactive experience
And between the two, only one thing is missing:
🔗 The index
A minimal layer that says:
These are the repositories this developer wants to show on their profile.
Nothing more.
🚀 The profile could become a real developer portfolio
And this is where I think the feature would go from being a small UX detail to something much more interesting.
Today, many developer profiles are fragmented.
You have:
GitHub → Code
LinkedIn → Professional profile
Portfolio → Selected projects
StackBlitz → Runnable demos
Vercel / Netlify → Deployments
But StackBlitz has something pretty special:
it can turn code into a runnable experience almost instantly.
If it also allowed external repositories to be indexed on a profile, that profile could become something like:
An interactive developer portfolio.
You wouldn't just show a card saying you built a project.
Someone opens it.
They inspect the code.
They run the project.
They modify it.
They test it.
All from the browser.
That's far more valuable than a simple screenshot.
🧩 Even Collections would make much more sense
Imagine being able to create:
🌐 Web Projects
- SolarisPKN-Labs
- Portfolio
- Astro experiments
⚙️ Backend & Automation
- Workers
- APIs
- Automations
🧪 Experiments
- Prototypes
- Tests
- Concepts
And each item would simply reference an external repository.
At that point, Collections would stop organizing only projects that live inside StackBlitz and start organizing the developer's actual work.
To me, that's a huge difference.
🎯 Conclusion
StackBlitz has already solved the hard part.
It can take external code, spin it up inside a WebContainer, and give you a complete development environment directly in the browser.
What's strange is that a much simpler feature is still missing afterward:
The ability to save that project as a reference on your profile.
I don't need them to duplicate my code.
I don't need extra storage.
I don't need another Git system.
I just need to be able to say:
“This repository is mine, you already opened it successfully, and I want to show it on my profile.”
An index.
A reference.
A button.
Done. 🔗
Sometimes a huge UX improvement doesn't require a huge architecture behind it.
And I think this is one of those cases.
💬 What do you think?
If you use StackBlitz together with GitHub, you've probably run into this separation at some point.
Would you use your StackBlitz profile as a developer portfolio if you could add your GitHub repositories directly to it?
I would.
And I'd probably end up using StackBlitz a lot more because of it. 🚀
Top comments (1)
Your idea of having StackBlitz function as an index for GitHub repositories is intriguing, especially considering how it would enhance developer visibility without duplicating efforts. This could streamline project showcasing while maintaining GitHub as the authoritative source. It might be worth considering how the metadata could be enriched with additional context or tags for better discoverability within StackBlitz. If you're looking for help in refining this concept or implementing it, I’d be happy to discuss a paid collaboration. What challenges do you foresee in integrating such a feature?