Frequently asked questions

Yes, no account, no login, no credit card. Paste a repo URL and click Map Stargazers.

No. StarMapper has no accounts, no login, no signup. Everything works immediately. Adding a GitHub token is optional and free, raising the GitHub API rate limit from 60 to 5,000 requests per hour so large repos scan faster. The token requires zero permissions, stays in your browser's session memory, and auto-deletes after 30 minutes.

Small repos (under 500 stars) scan in under 10 seconds. Large repos (50k+ stars) take a few minutes. The GitHub API processes users in batches of 100. Once a repo is scanned, the result is cached globally: any subsequent visitor loads it instantly, no re-scan needed.

No. StarMapper shows the last scan result, not a live feed. When you or anyone else clicks Refresh or Full rescan, the data is updated and shared with all future visitors. Think of it as a community-maintained snapshot: one person's refresh benefits everyone. Watch Mode is the exception: it polls GitHub every 60 seconds to surface new stars as they arrive, useful during a launch.

No. Your token is saved in your browser's session memory (sessionStorage) and auto-clears after 30 minutes or when you close the tab. It never leaves your browser except as an API relay header to GitHub. StarMapper has no accounts and does not store tokens server-side.

Yes. StarMapper is open source under the AGPL-3.0 license. The full source code is available on GitHub.

Accuracy depends on what GitHub users enter in their profile. On average 60–80% of stargazers have a geocodable location. Users without a location appear in the Unmapped list.

No. StarMapper only works with public repositories. The GitHub API does not expose stargazer data for private repos.

Yes. After scanning a repo, StarMapper generates two embeddable assets: an SVG shield badge (star count + countries mapped) and a full scatter map image. Copy the Markdown or HTML snippet directly from the map page.

StarMapper uses the GitHub public API (GraphQL + REST) with an authenticated token. We access only publicly visible profile fields: username, display name, and the self-declared location field. No private information is ever accessed. Location text is geocoded using Jawg, Geoapify, and Nominatim. Results are displayed as geographic clusters, not searchable individual records.

Remove your location from your GitHub profile settings. The next scan will reflect the change automatically and your coordinates will no longer be geocoded. To delete existing data, email florian@bruniaux.com with your GitHub username. We will remove your profile data and star events within 30 days.

Add a location to your GitHub profile at github.com/settings/profile. The next scan of any repo you've starred will pick it up automatically.

StarMapper computes an Organic Score (0 to 100) using three public signals: the fork/star ratio (40% weight, since real developers fork repos they use), the watcher/star ratio (5% weight, watchers are a deliberate opt-in since GitHub changed the default in 2020), and the percentage of zero-follower stargazers (55% weight, star-farming services use newly created accounts with no followers). The score was calibrated against 19 repositories, including cases documented in the Dagster investigation (2023) and the CMU/StarScout research paper (ICSE 2026), reaching 85.7% classification accuracy. Scores of 75 or above are Healthy, 50–74 are Moderate, and below 50 are Suspicious. The full methodology and calibration corpus are published on the site.

Yes. The Developer Maps section at /devs lets you browse developers geographically. The "By country" tab lists every country with at least 100 mapped developers, each linking to a full globe view at /devs/in/{country}. The "By language" tab lists all tracked languages, each linking to a globe showing developers who list that language on GitHub. Both views show developer counts and cross-link to each other.

Yes. Use the Compare feature to overlay two repositories simultaneously. Each repo's stargazers appear as distinct colored points (blue vs. purple), so you can see at a glance whether the two audiences overlap geographically or target entirely different communities. Useful for understanding competitive positioning or measuring the reach of cross-promotion between projects.

Enable Watch Mode after scanning a repo. StarMapper polls GitHub every 60 seconds and displays new stars as they arrive, with a count and breakdown by country, for example '+3 stars from India, Germany'. The indicator pulses while active and auto-stops after 10 minutes without new activity. Watch Mode is designed for Product Hunt launches, Hacker News posts, and conference announcements where geographic traction matters in real time.

Geographic Velocity measures how fast each country is discovering your repository. StarMapper compares the star acquisition rate over the last 30 days against the preceding 31–90 day window for each country, then assigns one of four statuses: Rising (x1.5+ growth rate), New (first stars in this window), Stable (consistent rate), or Declining (growth slowing). This lets you spot markets accelerating before they show up in aggregate counts.

The Notable Stargazers panel surfaces the highest-follower developers who have starred your repository, with filters at 500+, 1k+, and 5k+ followers. A developer with 20,000 followers who stars your repo can trigger hundreds of follow-on stars through their network. StarMapper shows their GitHub profile, follower count, company, and location so you can identify and engage them directly.