Open issues on the repository at the moment of collection.
API field
open_issues_count
Formula
Read directly from the API. Not derived.
Unit
open issues
How to read it
A backlog signal, and only that.
What it does not mean
GitHub's open_issues_count INCLUDES open pull requests. For a repository that works in pull requests this figure is much larger than the number of defects open, and it is not a bug count.
A high number can mean an unmaintained project or an extremely popular one.
Compare against the issue-close rate before drawing any conclusion; this dataset does not yet collect that.