GitHub

GitHub REST API for prospecting use cases: listing users who star, fork, or watch a repo as a high-quality developer-intent signal.

Capabilities

Authentication

• Type: Personal Access Token (PAT) or Fine-Grained PAT
• Header: Authorization: Bearer {token}
• Get token: https://github.com/settings/tokens
• Scopes for prospecting:
  • Public data (stargazers, forks, public profiles): no scope required with a token, or unauthenticated
  • Public repo metadata: public_repo scope
• Env var: GITHUB_TOKEN

Rate limits

A 1,000-star repo with full enrichment (1 list call + 1 profile call per user) = ~1,011 requests. Always set a token.

Common Agent Operations

List stargazers (users who starred a repo)

GET https://api.github.com/repos/{owner}/{repo}/stargazers?per_page=100&page=1

Accept: application/vnd.github+json
X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2022-11-28
Authorization: Bearer {token}

Pagination via Link header (rel="next", rel="last"). Default 30 per page, max 100.

Returns array of user objects with login, id, html_url, type (User or Organization). Full profile fields (email, company, blog, bio, location) require a follow-up call per user.

List forks (gives fork owner profiles)

GET https://api.github.com/repos/{owner}/{repo}/forks?per_page=100&page=1

Each fork object includes the owner (the user/org that forked). Forks are a stronger signal than stars — they imply intent to modify, not just bookmark.

List watchers (subscribers)

GET https://api.github.com/repos/{owner}/{repo}/subscribers?per_page=100&page=1

GitHub's "watch" → API's "subscribers". Smaller pool than stargazers but signals deeper engagement.

Get user profile (enrichment)

GET https://api.github.com/users/{username}

Returns: name, company, blog, email (if public), bio, twitter_username, location, public_repos, followers, created_at, hireable.

Key fields for prospecting:

• email: only ~5–20% of users publish this. Always nullable.
• company: many users include @org syntax — strip the @ for plain company name.
• blog: often a personal website where contact info is published.
• twitter_username / bio: useful for cross-channel research.

Check rate limit

GET https://api.github.com/rate_limit

Prospecting Workflows

Workflow 1 — Stargazers of a competitor or adjacent tool

# 100 stargazers, enrich each one, only keep those with email or company set
node tools/clis/github-prospects.js stargazers vercel/next.js \
  --limit 100 --enrich --format csv > nextjs-stars.csv

Filter the CSV in your spreadsheet by company set OR email set OR blog set. Hand off to Apollo/Clay/Hunter to enrich the rest with email-by-name+company.

Workflow 2 — Forks of your own repo (warm intent)

People who fork your repo have already shown direct interest. High-conversion outreach prospects.

node tools/clis/github-prospects.js forks yourorg/yourrepo \
  --enrich --with-email --format csv > my-fork-prospects.csv

Workflow 3 — Watchers of a category-defining repo

Watchers are smaller in number but higher in intent — they're tracking changes, not just bookmarking.

node tools/clis/github-prospects.js watchers tldraw/tldraw \
  --enrich --with-company --format csv > tldraw-watchers.csv

CLI Reference

# Stargazers
node tools/clis/github-prospects.js stargazers <owner/repo> \
  [--limit N] [--enrich] [--with-email] [--with-company] \
  [--with-blog] [--type User|Organization] [--format csv|json]

# Forks
node tools/clis/github-prospects.js forks <owner/repo> [...same flags]

# Watchers (subscribers in API terms)
node tools/clis/github-prospects.js watchers <owner/repo> [...same flags]

# Single user lookup
node tools/clis/github-prospects.js user <username>

# Check rate limit
node tools/clis/github-prospects.js rate-limit

Flags:

• --limit N: cap total results pulled from the list endpoint
• --target N: when filtering with --with-*, stop enriching as soon as N users match (saves quota on restrictive filters)
• --enrich: fetch full profile per user (1 extra request each)
• --with-email / --with-company / --with-blog: filter to users with these fields set (implies --enrich)
• --type User|Organization: filter by account type
• --format csv: output prospecting-ready CSV; default is JSON
• --dry-run: preview the request without sending

When to Use

• SaaS prospecting (primary use case): stargazers of a competitor, complement, or category-defining repo as in-market developer signal
• Open-source product marketing: see who's forking or watching your own repo for warm outreach
• Developer-tool ICP discovery: stargazers of next.js, prisma, tailwindcss, etc., signal a Next.js / Prisma / Tailwind developer
• Trigger event monitoring: a recent fork of a competitor's repo often signals dissatisfaction or active evaluation

When NOT to Use

• Email is your only signal you need — GitHub yields email for only ~5–20% of users. Pair with Apollo, Clay, or Hunter for enrichment from name + company.
• Hyper-broad lists — a repo with 100K+ stars is mostly noise. Smaller, more specific repos (5K–25K stars) give higher-signal lists.
• You don't have a way to handle high-volume LinkedIn lookup downstream — most enrichment from GitHub username goes through LinkedIn Sales Nav manually.

Compliance Notes

• GitHub data is public — no ToS issue with reading the API. The ToS prohibits abusive scraping (bypassing rate limits, mass account creation), not legitimate API usage.
• Personal emails published on GitHub — users opt in to publishing their email. Treat as business contact when paired with company/blog signals; respect GDPR/CAN-SPAM for the downstream send.
• Source URL lineage — for every prospect added from GitHub, capture html_url (their profile URL) and the source repo. Required for GDPR DSAR defense.
• Cool-down between large pulls — even at 5,000 req/hr, don't burst-fingerprint. Pagination is naturally paced; respect X-RateLimit-Remaining headers.

Pairing with Other Tools

Typical GitHub prospecting pipeline:

1. Pull stargazers/forkers via this CLI
2. Filter to users with company set (or other signal)
3. Enrich missing emails via Apollo / Clay / Hunter (lookup by name + company domain)
4. Validate emails via Truelist before adding to outreach list
5. Hand off to cold-email skill for outreach

See skills/prospecting/references/saas-prospecting.md and data-sources.md for the full prospecting framework.

Relevant Skills

• prospecting (primary use case)
• cold-email (downstream outreach)
• competitor-profiling (deeper account-level research on individual stargazers worth pursuing)