Repo Scout — Repository Discovery & Ranking

Overview

Systematically discover and rank GitHub repositories in a given ecosystem. Produces a structured, actionable ranking document.

Use cases: Open-source contribution targeting, technology landscape surveys, competitive analysis, ecosystem exploration.

Prerequisites

Before starting, the user must have GitHub CLI authenticated:

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If not configured, ask the user to provide:

1. 1. GitHub username — for searching and attribution
2. GitHub token — run gh auth login or set INLINECODE1

Without auth, gh API calls will hit rate limits quickly and private repo data won't be accessible.

Workflow

Step 1: Define Scope

Ask the user for (with sensible defaults):

Parameter	Default	Example
Ecosystem keyword(s)	(required)	"AI agent", "LLM tools", "Kubernetes"
Target count

15 | top 15 by stars |
| Minimum stars | 5,000 | Filter out small repos |
| Language filter | (any) | Python, TypeScript |
| Additional criteria | (none) | "must have bug label issues" |

Step 2: Search & Collect

Use multiple search strategies to find candidates:

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For each candidate repository, collect:

Data Point	How to Get
Star count	GitHub API / web
Primary language

GitHub API |
| Last commit date | GitHub API |
| Open issue count | GitHub API |
| Bug-labeled issues | gh issue list --label bug --state open --limit 5 |
| good first issue count | GitHub search |
| CONTRIBUTING.md exists? | Check repo root |
| CI configured? | Check .github/workflows/ |
| PR template exists? | Check .github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md |
| License | GitHub API |

Step 3: Score & Rank

Score each repository on a contribution friendliness scale:

Factor	Weight	Scoring
Actionable bug issues	30%	3=many clear bugs, 1=none
Activity (recent commits)

20% | 3=daily, 2=weekly, 1=monthly+ |
| Contribution docs | 15% | 3=CONTRIBUTING+template, 2=partial, 1=none |
| CI/CD health | 15% | 3=green CI, 2=partial, 1=none |
| Community size (stars) | 10% | 3=>50K, 2=>10K, 1=>5K |
| Response time to PRs | 10% | 3=<3d, 2=<7d, 1=>7d |

Step 4: Filter Out

Mark repositories to skip if:

• - Non-code repo (awesome-lists, documentation-only, resource collections)
• Desktop/mobile UI bugs requiring hardware access
• No actionable bug issues (only feature requests or stale issues)
• Archived or unmaintained (no commits in 6+ months)
• Hostile contribution environment (PRs routinely ignored)

Step 5: Produce Ranking Document

Write {workspace}/ecosystem-top{N}.md:

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Output

• - {workspace}/ecosystem-top{N}.md — Structured ranking document ready for downstream use

Tips

• - When used as part of a contribution campaign, the output feeds directly into the issue-hunter skill for issue analysis.
• For technology evaluation, the ranking + detailed profiles are the final deliverable.
• Re-run periodically to catch ecosystem changes.