Methodology

Tracked universe

As of the build on 27 Oct 2026, Rising tracks 685 GitHub repositories across 19 categories, with 2 snapshots of history. 100 of them form an editorial selection with a hand-written description of what the project is and why it is listed. The rest were added by discovery.

Discovery searches GitHub for repositories created in the rolling last 12 months with at least 300 stars and a push within 90 days. Forks and archived repositories are excluded. Month and star slices are split into shorter date ranges if a search exceeds GitHub's 1,000-result limit. A normal run accepts at most 150 new repositories; the 28 October expansion permits 500 additions. Collection stops at the remaining API budget floor or the 1,000-repository tracking ceiling. Finished slices are rescanned every 7 days.

A recent push is a sign of activity on any branch, including automated work. It does not establish useful maintenance or a working product. Creation dates refer to the GitHub repository, which may differ from a project's original launch. Already tracked repositories keep their history as they age beyond the discovery window.

Repositories whose name or description matches an exclusion list are skipped. A watch list can bypass discovery conditions, subject to the same tracking ceiling. Discovered repositories get a category from a keyword map or stay "Uncategorized"; curated repositories keep their editorial category.

Repository metrics come from GitHub's GraphQL API at the time of the snapshot. Rising stores one snapshot per run and never estimates a value it did not fetch.

Project images use a verified repository logo where one has been reviewed; otherwise they show the owner's GitHub avatar, which may be shared by several projects. Images are loaded from public GitHub hosts. If an image is unavailable, or scripts are disabled, project initials remain visible. An image does not imply endorsement.

What each number means

Stars

The repository's stargazer count at the snapshot. Stars can be removed, so a change can be negative.

Forks

The fork count at the snapshot.

Open issues

Issues open at the snapshot. When a repository has its issue tracker disabled this shows "no issue tracker", not zero.

Closed issues

Issues closed over the repository's lifetime.

Open and merged PRs

Pull requests open at the snapshot, and pull requests merged over the repository's lifetime.

Commits

Total commits on the default branch.

Commits, last 30 days

Commits on the default branch in the 30 days before the snapshot. This is a lifetime-independent activity count.

Median days to close

The median time from opening to closing, over a sample of the 20 most recently updated closed issues. It is context, not a quality grade, and it is not used for ranking.

Median days to merge

The median time from opening to merging, over a sample of the 20 most recently updated merged pull requests. Same caveats as median days to close.

Last push

The time of the most recent push to any branch, shown as "N days ago" relative to the repository observation time. Detail pages also show the absolute date.

Latest release

The tag and publication date of the most recent GitHub release. Many active projects never publish releases, so "none published" is common and says nothing about activity.

Age

Days between the repository's creation and the snapshot.

Lifetime pace

Stars divided by age, in stars per day. An average over the whole life of the repository.

Momentum

Recent pace divided by lifetime pace, where recent pace is the 7-day star gain divided by the exact span between the two snapshots used. A value above 1 means the last week was faster than the lifetime average. Momentum is unavailable until a 7-day window exists.

Windows

A 7-day or 30-day change is the difference between the latest snapshot and a baseline within six hours of exactly 7 or 30 days earlier. If no baseline exists in that tolerance, the window is shown as "unavailable". Rising never substitutes the oldest point it has, and never shows zero for a value it cannot compute.

Snapshots are taken at most once a day. Older history is thinned: every run from the last 30 is kept, then every seventh. A repository that was not refreshed in a given run has no point for that run, and its chart shows the gap. Charts use calendar time and do not connect points across missing days; sparse older observations remain separate marks.

English descriptions and release coverage

Project explanations are published in English. GitHub descriptions in another language receive a reviewed English translation; the project page identifies translated text and links to the original repository. The original description is retained in the source data. When a description changes, its English review must be updated before that version is published.

Models is an editorial selection of model releases, including open weights and hosted offerings. Each entry identifies its provider, announcement date, access, availability and official source. Open weights and a hosted service are different forms of access; neither is a quality ranking. Download trends and benchmark comparisons are not collected here.

Changes lists selected public model and product announcements. Newsletters, including World of AI, help us discover leads; published summaries are written in our own words and checked against the linked primary source. Dates refer to announcements, while the review date records when we checked them. A preview, an announced feature and an available release are labelled separately.

Paid products tracks selected new tools, major releases and new paid features. Each entry links an official launch, dated activity within 90 days of review, and current pricing or plan information. Reasons to watch and access limits are editorial judgements. These records are dated reviews, with no inferred sales, usage or quality scores; freemium and bundled access are labelled explicitly.

A daily source scan collects leads from official feeds and announcements. Publication follows a separate editorial pass that verifies dates, access and English summaries; failed or incomplete scans preserve the previous edition. This is a selected, reviewed edition, not a complete or live feed. GitHub metadata changes such as licence changes, repository transfers and archive transitions are not yet tracked as events.

Known limits

• Stars measure attention, not quality, correctness or maintenance. Issue counts, commit counts and close times are context and are never presented as a grade.
• Historical averages do not establish acceleration. Lifetime pace tells you how a project grew on average, not how it is growing now. Only a valid 7-day window can say anything about the current week.
• Snapshots are daily at best. Anything that happens between two snapshots is invisible, and a missed run leaves a gap rather than an estimate.
• The history holds 2 snapshots, the first from 2026-10-27. Windows longer than that are unavailable.
• Discovery only reaches repositories created in the last 12 months with at least 300 stars. Older or smaller projects are tracked only if they are in the editorial selection.
• Categories for discovered repositories come from keywords and can be wrong. Editorial categories are a judgement.
• Observation timestamps record successful GitHub collection; build time records publication. Rebuilding does not make data fresh. Observations older than 36 hours remain visible but are excluded from current movement and pace rankings.

Corrections

If a number, description or category is wrong, Rising wants to know. A correction names the project page, what is shown, what is correct, and where that can be checked. Factual fields are re-fetched from GitHub; editorial text is reviewed and changed by hand.

Report a correction on GitHub. Include the Rising page, what should change and a public source. Reports are public; please leave out private information. A GitHub account is required.