Insights
Key findings from analyzing 8,517 popular open-source repositories.
Most repos are in poor health
79% of graded repositories (6117 of 7715) received an F grade, making it the most common grade. Only 1% (39) earned an A. The combined A+B rate is 4% (277 repos).
The average score is 40/100. Even popular, widely-used projects often lack basic health hygiene like security policies, CI configuration, and issue triage.
Security is the weakest dimension
Security has the lowest average at 30/100, while Documentation leads at 53/100. The 23-point gap between Documentation and Security reveals a systematic blind spot.
Language choice correlates with health
Repositories in systems languages and modern typed languages tend to score higher. This likely reflects engineering culture rather than language features.
Highest scoring
Lowest scoring
Project type matters
5 project types across 7715 graded repos. Runtime scores highest at 70/100.
Stars don't guarantee health
The top 20 most-starred repositories average 58/100 (overall avg: 40). Popularity doesn't automatically translate to good engineering practices.
About this analysis
Scores are computed from publicly available repository metadata including CI configuration, security policies, documentation, test coverage indicators, dependency management, and issue triage. They reflect repository health practices, not code quality or project usefulness. Documentation-only and mirror repositories are excluded from grading. Data was collected on April 3, 2026.