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gitdebt

How to count the total stars of a GitHub user or organization

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GitHub shows stars per repository and has no total for an account. You can add them up for any user or organization: the exact current number comes from GitHub’s API, and the total over time from gitdebt. You need a terminal. A GitHub token is optional and raises the rate limit.

1. Decide what you count

Question Choice in this guide
Stars the account received, or stars it gave? Received. Step 6 covers stars given
Include forks? No. A fork’s stars belong to the fork, and most forks have none. Remove the filter to include them
Private repositories? No. Step 7 covers your own private repositories
User or organization? Both. The same endpoint lists the public repositories of either

The endpoint is GET https://api.github.com/users/LOGIN/repos. It returns 30 repositories per page by default and at most 100 with per_page=100, so a large account needs several pages.

For a user, the endpoint returns the repositories the account owns, because its type parameter defaults to owner. Repositories that the user works on inside an organization belong to that organization and are not in the sum. Archived repositories are public and are included. Count each organization on its own and add the results if you want a person’s total across their organizations.

2. Count with the GitHub CLI

If you use gh, one line does it. --paginate fetches every page:

gh api --paginate "users/LOGIN/repos?per_page=100" \
  --jq '.[] | select(.fork | not) | .stargazers_count' \
  | awk '{ total += $1 } END { print total }'

For rust-lang, an organization, this printed 402845 on 30 October 2026, summed over 227 repositories that are not forks.

--jq runs once per page, which is why the sum happens in awk and not in jq. To include forks, delete select(.fork | not) | from the filter. To list the repositories behind the number, print .full_name next to .stargazers_count.

3. Count without the CLI

These scripts do the same with plain HTTP. Each reads GITHUB_TOKEN when it is set. Without a token, GitHub allows 60 requests an hour from one IP address. With one, it allows 5,000.

Bash and curl

LOGIN=octocat
auth=()
[ -n "$GITHUB_TOKEN" ] && auth=(-H "Authorization: Bearer $GITHUB_TOKEN")
total=0
page=1
while :; do
  body=$(curl -sf "${auth[@]}" "https://api.github.com/users/$LOGIN/repos?per_page=100&page=$page") || exit 1
  [ "$(echo "$body" | jq 'length')" -eq 0 ] && break
  total=$((total + $(echo "$body" | jq '[.[] | select(.fork | not) | .stargazers_count] | add // 0')))
  page=$((page + 1))
done
echo "$total"

Python

import json
import os
import urllib.request

login = "octocat"
headers = {}
if os.environ.get("GITHUB_TOKEN"):
    headers["Authorization"] = f"Bearer {os.environ['GITHUB_TOKEN']}"

total = 0
page = 1
while True:
    url = f"https://api.github.com/users/{login}/repos?per_page=100&page={page}"
    with urllib.request.urlopen(urllib.request.Request(url, headers=headers)) as response:
        repos = json.load(response)
    if not repos:
        break
    total += sum(repo["stargazers_count"] for repo in repos if not repo["fork"])
    page += 1
print(total)

JavaScript (Node.js 18 or later)

const login = "octocat";
const headers = process.env.GITHUB_TOKEN
  ? { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.GITHUB_TOKEN}` }
  : {};
let total = 0;
for (let page = 1; ; page++) {
  const response = await fetch(
    `https://api.github.com/users/${login}/repos?per_page=100&page=${page}`,
    { headers },
  );
  if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`GitHub answered ${response.status}`);
  const repos = await response.json();
  if (repos.length === 0) break;
  for (const repo of repos) if (!repo.fork) total += repo.stargazers_count;
}
console.log(total);

Save the JavaScript as count.mjs and run node count.mjs, so that top-level await works.

4. See the total over time

The API gives today’s number. To see how the total grew, open https://gitdebt.com/LOGIN. The page sums the star history of the account’s 50 most-starred public repositories into one curve, and states the gains in the last 30 and 90 days. It works for users and organizations.

The same curve is an image you can embed:

https://api.gitdebt.com/api/users/LOGIN/chart.svg

The first visit queues the work for an account gitdebt has not seen. Large repositories fill in first, and the curve grows as the rest finish.

5. Read gitdebt’s totals as JSON

stats.json returns what gitdebt has stored for the account. It reads gitdebt’s database and does not call GitHub:

curl -s https://api.gitdebt.com/api/users/LOGIN/stats.json \
  | jq '{repos_tracked, total_stars, total_forks}'

total_stars covers the repositories gitdebt tracks for the account, and repos_tracked says how many that is. The number can trail GitHub’s own sum by a few stars or by repositories gitdebt has not listed yet. For one account on 30 October 2026, gitdebt reported 64,308 stars over 60 tracked repositories, and the GitHub API summed 64,467 over 97 repositories that are not forks. Use step 2 when you need the exact current number.

6. Count the stars an account gave

Stars given are the repositories the account starred. Ask for one per page and read the last page number from the Link header:

curl -sI "https://api.github.com/users/LOGIN/starred?per_page=1" | grep -i '^link:'

The number after page= in the rel="last" link is the count.

7. Include your own private repositories

gitdebt never reads private repositories. The GitHub API lists your own private repositories with your token:

gh api --paginate "user/repos?visibility=private&affiliation=owner&per_page=100" \
  --jq '.[] | .stargazers_count' \
  | awk '{ total += $1 } END { print total }'

Add the result to the public total from step 2.

Troubleshooting

What you see Cause Fix
HTTP 403 with “API rate limit exceeded” More than 60 requests in an hour without a token Set GITHUB_TOKEN, or wait for the hour to pass
HTTP 404 The login does not exist Check the spelling on github.com
gitdebt’s total differs from the API gitdebt counts the repositories it tracks Use the API for the exact number and gitdebt for the trend

To put the total in a profile README, see How to add stats to your GitHub profile README. To see the curve for any account now, open gitdebt and enter a login after the domain, as in gitdebt.com/LOGIN.

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