markdown-badges: A Curated Badge Collection for GitHub Profiles and READMEs
The largest curated collection of markdown badges for your personal developer branding, profile, and projects.
At a glance
- What is it?
- markdown-badges is a repository maintained by Ileriayo Adebiyi that collects ready-to-paste Shields.io badge Markdown for hundreds of technologies. It is primarily a reference library, not a generator, designed for developers building personal profiles and project READMEs.
- Who is it for?
- markdown-badges is the right starting point when you want consistent badge styling across a GitHub profile or README and do not want to build each badge URL from scratch. It is not a generator and does not produce custom badges.
- Can I use it commercially?
- Yes. MIT is a permissive licence: you can use, modify and sell software built on it, as long as you keep its copyright and licence notices.
- Is it still maintained?
- Yes. The repository received new commits within the last day.
- What is it written in?
- Mainly SCSS, according to GitHub's language statistics.
Answers come from the project's GitHub data, last synced on September 30, 2026, and from our analysis. They are not legal advice.
Editorial analysis
What markdown-badges Is and Who Uses It
markdown-badges is a curated collection of pre-formatted badge Markdown strings for developer profiles and open-source project READMEs on GitHub. Each entry in the collection consists of an img element pointing to a Shields.io-generated badge, paired with a technology name. The repository is not a web service and does not host badge images itself. All images are served by Shields.io at runtime.
The audience is developers who want to display their technology stack on a GitHub profile README or in a project's README. The collection is organized by category rather than by alphabetical order, which means a developer looking for a specific badge typically uses browser search (Ctrl+F or Cmd+F on the GitHub page) rather than scrolling.
How the Repository Is Organized
The repository has a single primary file: README.md. The top-level entries show .github/, .gitignore, .prettierrc, .unibeautifyrc.json, CONTRIBUTING.md, LICENSE, README.md, _config.yml, and assets/. The badges live entirely in README.md, organized under over 40 named categories.
The category list spans: Artificial Intelligence and Bots, Blog, Blockchain, Browsers, CAD, CI/CD, Cloud Storage, Cryptocurrency, Databases, Design, Developer Forums, Documentation Platforms, Education, Funding, Frameworks/Platforms/Libraries (including Frontend, CSS Frameworks, Backend, Mobile, ML/AI, Build Tools), Gaming, Game Consoles, Geospatial, Hardware, Hosting/SaaS, IDEs/Editors, Languages, ML/DL, Music, Office, Operating Systems, ORM, DevOps, Build Toolchains, Home Automation, Networking, Security, Quantum Programming, Search Engines, Servers, Smartphone Brands, Social, Store, Streaming, Terminals, Testing, Version Control, VPN, Wearables, and Work/Jobs.
Each category shows a table with three columns: Name, Badge (a rendered preview), and Markdown (the raw string to copy). There is also a live website at ileriayo.github.io/markdown-badges/ that mirrors the content in a browsable form.
Using a Badge: Copy, Paste, and Style Variants
The README describes two ways to find a badge. On the GitHub page, press Ctrl+F, type the technology name, and copy the img element from the Markdown column. Alternatively, visit the live site at ileriayo.github.io/markdown-badges/.
Every badge in the collection uses the for-the-badge style from Shields.io. The README notes this was chosen for appearance and documents all five available Shields.io styles:
https://shields.io/badge/style-plastic-green?logo=appveyor&style=plastic
https://shields.io/badge/style-flat-green?logo=appveyor&style=flatTo switch from for-the-badge to another style, replace the style parameter in the copied URL. The five options are plastic, flat, flat-square, social, and for-the-badge. This substitution works with any badge in the collection; no other change is needed.
The collection is limited to badges that use icons from the simple-icons project. For technologies without a simple-icons entry, the README points to shields.io directly, where you can build a badge with custom text and color but no logo.
What the Badges Actually Contain
Each badge is an img element with a src attribute pointing to a shields.io URL. The URL encodes the badge label, color, and logo name. For example, a Claude badge in the AI section would reference the Claude logo from the simple-icons library. No JavaScript, no server-side code, and no authentication is involved. The badges render as static images whenever GitHub or another Markdown renderer fetches them.
This means the rendered appearance depends on Shields.io being available. If Shields.io is down or rate-limiting a viewer's IP, badges appear as broken images. The repository itself has no control over this, since it is purely a link collection. The README does not document any self-hosting option for the badge images.
Scope and What Is Missing
The collection does not include every technology that exists. Its constraint is the simple-icons library: a badge with no matching simple-icons entry is not added. This is stated explicitly in the README: as this repo is focused on badges with simple-icons/simple-icons icons we do not add badges without them.
For customization beyond swapping the style parameter, markdown-badges is not the right tool. It does not generate custom text, custom colors, or custom icons. Shields.io at shields.io handles those cases directly. The repository also does not track version-specific badges or provide dynamic badges that pull live data such as build status or package version. Those are separate Shields.io use cases that require constructing the URL yourself.
Contributing and Maintenance
The last push was on 2026-09-26. The repository has no GitHub releases and uses no versioning scheme. New badges are added through pull requests following the process in CONTRIBUTING.md: discuss the change in a GitHub issue, open a pull request referencing the issue, and explain the change.
Because all badges are in a single README.md, contributions are purely Markdown additions to an existing table. The .prettierrc and .unibeautifyrc.json files in the repository root suggest formatting is enforced, though the README does not describe a CI check for badge validity. The MIT license permits use, modification, and redistribution without restriction.
markdown-badges vs Building Badge URLs Manually
The alternative to markdown-badges is constructing Shields.io URLs directly. Shields.io's documentation explains the badge URL format: https://img.shields.io/badge/<label>-<message>-<color>?logo=<icon>&style=<style>. This gives full control over label text, color, and style.
The trade-off is time. Manually building a URL requires knowing the correct simple-icons slug for the logo, which is case-sensitive and not always obvious. markdown-badges solves exactly that lookup problem. If you know the technology name, the collection already has the correct icon slug embedded in the URL. The repository does not serve as an index of simple-icons slugs in a machine-readable format; it is a human-readable Markdown table.
Editorial conclusion
markdown-badges is the right starting point when you want consistent badge styling across a GitHub profile or README and do not want to build each badge URL from scratch. It is not a generator and does not produce custom badges. For badges with no icon in the simple-icons library, the README explicitly points to shields.io directly. Before using it, check that the technology you need has a simple-icons entry, since the collection excludes badges that lack one.
Frequently asked questions
What is a GitHub badge in a README?
A GitHub badge in a README is a small image generated by a service like Shields.io that displays a label and a status or logo. It is added to a Markdown file as an img element pointing to the badge service's URL. The markdown-badges repository collects pre-built Shields.io badge URLs for hundreds of technologies.
How do I create my own badge for a GitHub README?
For badges with icons, you can use the markdown-badges collection: find the technology by pressing Ctrl+F on the README or live site, then copy the Markdown. For technologies without an entry, the README points to shields.io where you can build a badge with custom text and color.
What does the for-the-badge style mean in markdown-badges?
for-the-badge is one of five badge styles offered by Shields.io. The markdown-badges collection uses it as the default for appearance reasons. You can switch to plastic, flat, flat-square, or social by replacing for-the-badge in the badge URL's style parameter.
Why are some technologies missing from markdown-badges?
The collection only includes badges that have a corresponding icon in the simple-icons project. Technologies without a simple-icons entry are not added. The README states this directly and points to shields.io for building badges without icons.
Official sources
Add this badge to your README
If you maintain this project, the badge below links readers to this analysis and shows its maintenance status from the daily GitHub snapshot. Paste the markdown into your README; add ?metric=license or ?metric=stars to the image URL for a different field.
[](https://hysenlabs.com/projects/ileriayo-markdown-badges)