The total number of users who have starred the repository, as reported by GitHub at the moment of collection.
API field
stargazers_count
Formula
Read directly from the API. Not derived.
Unit
stars
How to read it
A cumulative popularity signal. It measures attention since the repository was created, so it favours older projects and cannot fall except when users unstar.
What it does not mean
Cumulative since creation: a repo created in 2023 is not comparable to one created in 2026 without dividing by age (see Stars Per Day).
Launches, conference talks and trending pages move stars in bursts; a single good week can dominate the total.
GitHub's own web page may show a slightly different figure than the API at the same moment, because the two are served from different caches. This dataset reports what the API returned.
Stars are not usage. Many starred repositories are never run.