https://github.com/didrod205/fake-star-detector
Is this GitHub repo's hype real? Crawls a repo's recent stargazers and flags purchased/bot stars from the timing spikes and the empty accounts behind them. A fake-o-meter + a self-updating leaderboard of trending repos. Public data, no key needed.
https://github.com/didrod205/fake-star-detector
astroturf bots cli crawler fake-stars github no-api-key stars trending typescript
Last synced: about 2 hours ago
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Is this GitHub repo's hype real? Crawls a repo's recent stargazers and flags purchased/bot stars from the timing spikes and the empty accounts behind them. A fake-o-meter + a self-updating leaderboard of trending repos. Public data, no key needed.
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/didrod205/fake-star-detector
- Owner: didrod205
- License: mit
- Created: 2026-06-24T01:31:07.000Z (11 days ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2026-07-03T11:03:52.000Z (1 day ago)
- Last Synced: 2026-07-03T13:08:07.275Z (1 day ago)
- Topics: astroturf, bots, cli, crawler, fake-stars, github, no-api-key, stars, trending, typescript
- Language: TypeScript
- Homepage: https://didrod205.github.io/fake-star-detector/
- Size: 102 KB
- Stars: 1
- Watchers: 0
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 0
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.md
- License: LICENSE
- Code of conduct: CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
Awesome Lists containing this project
README
# fake-star-detector ⭐
**Is this GitHub repo's hype real?** Crawls a repo's recent stargazers and flags purchased/bot stars — from the **timing spikes** (hundreds in an hour) and the **empty accounts** behind them (days old, zero followers, zero repos, starred one thing and vanished). A fake-o-meter 0–100, with the receipts. No API key needed; a token just raises the rate limit.
### 🌐 [**Check any repo + today's trending leaderboard →**](https://didrod205.github.io/fake-star-detector/)
Paste a repo and it analyzes the stars live in your browser. Same engine in your terminal:
```bash
npx fake-star-detector facebook/react
npx fake-star-detector trending # rank today's trending by how bought they look
```
```
some-trending-org/rocket-launch · 48,201 stars
82/100 ████████████████░░░░ Reeks of bought stars 🤖
timing (of 1,000 recent stars)
biggest burst: 412 stars in one hour · 2026-06-12T03:00Z
91% of them landed on a single day ▁▁▁▁▁█▁▁
accounts (sampled 30 recent stargazers)
26/30 look bot-shaped (87%)
@xk29fja — account 2d old when it starred, 0 followers, 0 public repos, no bio
@qz81mn0 — account 1d old when it starred, 0 followers, 0 public repos, no bio
…
heuristic, not proof — fast bursts + empty accounts ≈ purchased stars. public data only.
```
## Why
GitHub stars are a currency — and currencies get counterfeited. You can buy a
thousand stars for pocket change, and a lot of repos do, especially the ones
racing up *trending*. The fakes leave two fingerprints this tool reads:
1. **Timing.** Real stars trickle in; bought stars arrive in a wall — hundreds in
an hour, the whole batch in a day.
2. **The accounts.** A real stargazer has a history. A bought one is a shell:
created days ago, zero followers, zero repos, one star, gone.
`fake-star-detector` samples the **recent** stargazers (where the dumps show up),
measures both, and gives you a score and the receipts.
## How it works
```
GitHub stargazers API (starred_at) ─crawl recent→ timing spikes ─┐
GitHub users API (account metadata) ─sample→ empty-account share ─┴→ fake-o-meter
```
- **Browser-safe** — `api.github.com` allows CORS, so the exact same crawler runs
in the CLI, in CI, and live in the web page (no `node:*` in the core).
- **Account signal dominates** the score (empty accounts are the real tell); the
timing concentration and single-hour burst corroborate. Among *trending* repos a
big burst is expected, so we don't cry wolf on timing alone.
- The **live leaderboard** is static: a GitHub Action re-analyzes trending every
few hours and commits the result — no server.
## Install & usage
```bash
npm i -g fake-star-detector # then: fake-star-detector owner/repo
# or zero-install:
npx fake-star-detector owner/repo
```
```bash
fake-star-detector facebook/react # analyze one repo
fake-star-detector trending # rank today's trending by suspicion
fake-star-detector owner/repo --sample 50 # sample more accounts (more confident)
fake-star-detector owner/repo --md # a Markdown report
fake-star-detector owner/repo --json # the full analysis
```
`fakestars` is a shorter alias.
| Flag | |
| --- | --- |
| `--token ` | a GitHub token (also `GITHUB_TOKEN` / `GH_TOKEN`) — raises 60 → 5,000 req/hr |
| `--pages ` | stargazer pages (×100 most-recent stars) to pull (default 10) |
| `--sample ` | recent stargazer accounts to sample (default 30) |
| `--json [file]` / `--md [file]` | machine-readable / Markdown output |
> **Rate limits:** unauthenticated GitHub allows ~60 requests/hour — enough for a
> check or two. A read-only token (or `gh auth token`) raises it to 5,000.
## Library
The core is pure and browser-safe:
```ts
import { analyzeRepo } from "fake-star-detector";
const a = await analyzeRepo("owner/repo", { token, sample: 40 });
a.verdict; // { score: 82, band: "astroturfed", label: "Reeks of bought stars" }
a.suspiciousFraction; // 0.87
a.spikes.burst; // { hour: "2026-06-12T03:00Z", count: 412 }
a.samples; // the sampled accounts, each with `suspicious` + `reasons`
```
## Honesty
This is a **heuristic, not proof.** A high score means a burst of recent stars
from empty, brand-new accounts — *the shape of* purchased stars. It is not a
certainty, and a fast-growing legit project can have a spiky day. It reads only
**public** data (stargazer timestamps and public account metadata), points at
**repos** rather than people, and shows you the receipts so you can judge for
yourself. Nothing about *you* is ever sent anywhere — in the browser, your
optional token goes straight to `api.github.com` and stays in the tab.
## Contributing
The most useful contribution is a **sharper account heuristic** or score tuning.
See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md).
## License
MIT © [didrod205](https://github.com/didrod205)
---
Stars are a currency. This is the counterfeit detector. Heuristic, public data, judge for yourself.
## 💖 Sponsor
Find this useful? [**Sponsor on GitHub**](https://github.com/sponsors/didrod205) — it keeps these projects maintained.
[](https://github.com/sponsors/didrod205)