Star History: The GitHub Star History Graph

What Star History Does and Who Needs It

Star History solves a single, specific problem: it shows how the GitHub star count of one or more repositories has grown over time, not just where it stands today. A rising count taken in isolation says nothing about whether growth is accelerating, decelerating, or attributable to a single viral moment. The chart makes those patterns visible.

The primary audience is open-source maintainers tracking their own project, developers comparing libraries before adoption, and anyone who writes about open-source ecosystems. The hosted version at star-history.com requires no account and no install.

Chart Features and Embed Options

The README lists several features that distinguish Star History from a simple line chart. The chart uses an xkcd-style sketch rendering. Users can switch between a date view and a timeline view, which are different ways of aligning multiple repositories when their histories differ significantly in length.

The most practical feature for maintainers is the live embed. The API server generates an SVG image that updates on each request, so a README that links to it always shows the current chart rather than a stale screenshot. The README itself uses this embed at the top of the page. The instructions for creating an embed are documented at star-history.com/blog/how-to-use-github-star-history.

Single-click image export lets a user download the chart as a high-quality image for presentations or blog posts.

The tool also accepts multiple repositories in a single chart, which is useful for comparisons. A Twitter quick-share shortcut and a shortcut for typing a repository name are listed in the README's feature list.

Running Star History Locally

Star History is split into a frontend and a backend. The frontend is a Next.js application using TailwindCSS; the backend is an experimental API server used to generate SVG chart images for README embeds.

Prerequisites are Node.js and pnpm. To run the homepage locally:

cd frontend && pnpm i && pnpm dev

The website runs at http://localhost:3000. To build and load the Chrome extension:

cd frontend && pnpm build:ext

That produces a `dist/` folder that Chrome loads as an unpacked extension from the Extensions page. To run the API server:

cd backend && pnpm i && pnpm dev

The API server runs on http://localhost:8080. The README describes the API server as an experimental feature used mainly to generate SVG files for GitHub README embeds.

The README also states that the project does not accept external contributions.

The Chrome Extension

The Chrome extension is described as a free additional product that supports basic chart viewing. It covers the same core chart feature but without the full set of tools available on the web app. Users who browse GitHub frequently can view star history without navigating to a separate site.

The extension is listed on the Chrome Web Store. Building it locally, as shown above, requires the same `frontend` directory and pnpm. The built output goes into `./dist` and is loaded as an unpacked project from the Chrome extensions page.

What Star History Does Not Do

Star History is a visualization tool, not a data export tool. There is no documented endpoint to download raw star timestamps as a CSV or JSON file for external analysis.

The tool does not track forks, issues, pull requests, or commit activity. Its entire scope is the star count over time. For projects that need a fuller picture of repository health, a tool like GitHub's built-in Insights page or a third-party analytics service would be needed in addition.

The README acknowledges that badge embedding (global rank badges) is also available, but the API server behind the embed is described as experimental. Depending on that endpoint in production carries the risk that its behavior could change without a versioned release, since the repository has no GitHub releases.

There is also no search or discovery feature. Star History does not help find repositories with notable growth patterns; you must already know which repository you want to examine. If the goal is to discover trending projects rather than track known ones, a separate tool would be needed.

Technology Stack and Maintenance

The core dependencies in the shared package are D3 (axis, scale, selection, shape modules), Day.js for date handling, Axios for HTTP, and Lodash. The frontend is Next.js with TailwindCSS. The repository structure separates `frontend/`, `backend/`, and `shared/` code.

The project is licensed under MIT, which permits any use including commercial embedding. The last push was on 2026-09-12. There are no tagged GitHub releases; versioning is managed through repository branches.

The `gh/` directory in the repository suggests there is some GitHub-specific tooling included alongside the main frontend and backend. The `assets/` directory likely holds static images used in the README. The `.claude/` and `CLAUDE.md` files at the repository root indicate the project uses Claude Code for development assistance, with custom instructions configured for this codebase.

Editorial conclusion

Star History is the right choice for maintainers who want a live chart embedded in a README or a shareable image that shows growth over time. It is not a self-hostable analytics backend and does not expose raw star data as a downloadable dataset. The team states it does not accept external contributions, so bug reports and feature requests go through GitHub Discussions rather than pull requests. The MIT license allows embedding the chart in any context.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Issues
2. License: MIT
3. Project website
4. README
5. star-history/star-history on GitHub