Getting Started with GitScope
Everything you need to go from zero to your first repository analysis in under five minutes.
GitScope is a GitHub analytics dashboard that lets any engineer analyze public repositories in depth. No installation is required — open the app in your browser, create a free account (or continue as a guest), and immediately start exploring repositories, comparing projects side-by-side, and reading AI-generated health reports.
What you can do on your first visit
- Search any public GitHub repository by owner/name (e.g. vercel/next.js) and view its star history, contributor graph, language breakdown, and recent commits.
- Compare up to two repositories simultaneously using the Compare tool — see relative growth, language overlap, and contributor diversity at a glance.
- Browse trending repositories filtered by language, time window (daily / weekly / monthly), and star growth velocity.
- View organization-level analytics for any GitHub org — aggregate stars, top repos, language footprint, and contributor heatmaps.
- Access the Intelligence Hub for AI-powered velocity metrics, PR risk scores, dependency radar, and code health analysis (requires GitHub OAuth sign-in).
Guest access is intentionally generous — you can read star histories, browse contributors, and explore trending repos without signing in. However, several features (the Intelligence Hub, saved preferences, Activity Log, and higher API rate limits) require an account. Signing in with GitHub OAuth unlocks the full feature set, including the Intelligence Hub and your personal GitHub activity feed.
To get the most out of GitScope, connect a GitHub Personal Access Token (PAT) from your Settings page. A PAT raises your GitHub API quota from 60 requests per hour (unauthenticated) to 5,000 requests per hour, which is critical for heavy analysis sessions involving many repositories or large organizations. See the Authentication & Accounts section for step-by-step PAT setup instructions.
Recommended first steps
- Sign in with GitHub OAuth to unlock all features and connect your activity feed.
- Navigate to Settings > Account Security and add a GitHub Personal Access Token with the repo and read:user scopes.
- Search for a repository you care about (try your company's main repo or a popular open-source project) to get a feel for the analytics dashboard.
- Use the Command Palette (Ctrl+K / Cmd+K) to quickly jump between any view.
- Visit the Intelligence Hub to run a code health analysis on a repository of your choice.
GitScope only analyzes public repositories. Private repository analysis is not supported in any tier, and no read access to your private repos is ever requested or stored.
Next Steps