Use this guide to answer a few common maintainer questions:
- How much interest is the repo getting?
- Which package ecosystems are seeing usage?
- Can we see which projects depend on the repo or packages?
- Can we identify who accessed the repo?
For GitHub-hosted repo traffic, use the repository Traffic view:
- GitHub UI:
Insights->Traffic - Metrics available: views, unique visitors, clones, unique cloners, top referrers, and popular content
- Retention: GitHub only keeps the most recent 14 days in the UI
CLI/API equivalents:
gh api repos/greyhaven-ai/autocontext/traffic/views
gh api repos/greyhaven-ai/autocontext/traffic/clones
gh api repos/greyhaven-ai/autocontext/traffic/popular/referrers
gh api repos/greyhaven-ai/autocontext/traffic/popular/pathsUse weekly snapshots if you want longer-running trendlines.
The npm package page is the easiest package-level signal:
- Package page: https://www.npmjs.com/package/autoctx
- Watch the recent download count and any dependent package links npm exposes
PyPI does not provide a simple project-specific downloads dashboard in its main UI.
Practical options:
- Package page: https://pypi.org/project/autocontext/
- For official download analysis, use PyPI's BigQuery dataset
PyPI's /stats/ API is global PyPI-wide data, not per-project package downloads.
GitHub dependency graph is the best built-in signal for public dependents.
What it can show:
- public repos that declare this repo or package as a dependency
- package ecosystem relationships when manifests are recognized
Important limitations:
- the "Used by" sidebar only appears in some cases
- it depends on dependency graph support and recognized manifests
- it is not a complete picture of all real-world usage
Usually, no.
For a public GitHub repository:
- you can see aggregate repo traffic
- you generally cannot see exactly who viewed or cloned the repo
For organizations:
- org owners can review the organization audit log for actor and repository events
- that is useful for member/admin activity, not for identifying anonymous public viewers
- Check GitHub Traffic weekly and record the numbers somewhere durable if you care about trends.
- Watch npm for public package uptake.
- Use PyPI BigQuery if Python download counts become important enough to track regularly.
- Check GitHub dependency graph and dependents for public adopters.
- Do not expect individual-level viewer identity for public repository traffic.
- GitHub traffic docs: https://docs.github.com/en/repositories/viewing-activity-and-data-for-your-repository/viewing-traffic-to-a-repository
- GitHub traffic API docs: https://docs.github.com/rest/metrics/traffic
- GitHub dependency graph docs: https://docs.github.com/en/code-security/supply-chain-security/understanding-your-software-supply-chain/about-the-dependency-graph?apiVersion=2022-11-28
- GitHub org audit log docs: https://docs.github.com/en/organizations/keeping-your-organization-secure/managing-security-settings-for-your-organization/reviewing-the-audit-log-for-your-organization
- npm package page: https://www.npmjs.com/package/autoctx
- PyPI BigQuery docs: https://docs.pypi.org/api/bigquery/
- PyPI stats API docs: https://docs.pypi.org/api/stats/