Pull the live GitHub Trending Repos board as JSON, then measure related search and npm adoption signals for the repos that matter.
Live data as of 2026-08-01
The GitHub Trending Repos API on Trends MCP returns the live developer discovery board through get_top_trends with type GitHub Trending Repos, then optional adoption follow-ups through google search or npm. From the August 1 2026 scan (as_of_ts 2026-08-01T04:01:29+00:00), the feed returned 12 ranked repositories with zhaoxuya520/reverse-skill at rank 1, different-ai/openwork at rank 2, and microsoft/AI-For-Beginners at rank 5. github/copilot-sdk sat at rank 6 while chatwoot/chatwoot sat at rank 7. Free tier access is 100 requests per month.
From the Trends MCP scan of August 1, 2026, type GitHub Trending Repos with limit 25 and offset 0 returned count 12. Offset 12 returned count 0, so the full board for this pull is the table below:
| Rank | Repository |
|---|---|
| 1 | zhaoxuya520/reverse-skill |
| 2 | different-ai/openwork |
| 3 | mvanhorn/last30days-skill |
| 4 | paperswithbacktest/awesome-systematic-trading |
| 5 | microsoft/AI-For-Beginners |
| 6 | github/copilot-sdk |
| 7 | chatwoot/chatwoot |
| 8 | agavra/tuicr |
| 9 | usekaneo/kaneo |
| 10 | geo-tp/ESP32-Bit-Pirate |
| 11 | deepfakes/faceswap |
| 12 | 1jehuang/jcode |
Twelve real rows beat a padded list. The mix spans agent skills, trading research lists, Microsoft learning content, official Copilot tooling, open-source support desks, embedded hardware, and deepfake tooling. Rank alone is not adoption proof; the next section attaches external growth where the keyword resolves cleanly.
One board call covers discovery. Pass type GitHub Trending Repos and a limit up to 200. The August 1 2026 response included count 12 even though limit was 25, so always read count instead of assuming a full page.
{
"mode": "get_top_trends",
"type": "GitHub Trending Repos",
"limit": 25,
"offset": 0
}
Pagination uses offset. After offset 12 returned empty on August 1 2026, further pages were unnecessary. Median workflow for a morning scan: 1 board call, then 3 to 5 growth calls on the repos that match a product or research brief.
Trends MCP has no dedicated github growth source, so follow-ups use adjacent signals. On the July 25 2026 google search points, copilot sdk sat at recent_value 13.0 (-27.78% over 7 days, -67.5% over 30 days). faceswap sat at 27.0 (-6.9% over 7 days, -18.18% over 30 days). chatwoot sat at 27.0 (0.0% over 7 days, -56.45% over 30 days from a June 27 baseline of 62.0). openwork AI sat at 22.0 (-46.34% over 7 days, -75.28% over 30 days).
npm adds package download volume when the name matches. For keyword chatwoot on August 1 2026, npm recent_volume was 1.0 versus baseline_volume 25.0 over 30 days (-96.0% volume growth), with normalized recent_value 0.2 versus 5.5. systematic trading, the theme behind paperswithbacktest/awesome-systematic-trading at rank 4, showed google search recent_value 18.0 on July 25 2026 (-47.06% over 7 days, -70.49% over 30 days). Board heat and off-platform demand can diverge for days.
Developer-relations teams scan the board for tools that suddenly enter the top 12, then check whether search interest is rising or already fading. On August 1 2026, three of the top five ranks were skill or agent-adjacent repos (reverse-skill, openwork, last30days-skill), a cluster worth watching next to npm package trends. Research desks tracking quant content can watch rank 4 (awesome-systematic-trading) without scraping GitHub HTML.
A compact loop: pull the board at a fixed UTC hour, keep repos that match an allowlist of topics, then run google search growth on 3 names and npm growth when an exact package exists. The whole pass stays inside 6 requests, which fits a free-tier month if the job runs only on weekdays.
Trending rank is not star count, fork count, or production readiness. A repo can trend on a viral README while search interest falls, as copilot sdk did with -71.74% google search growth over 3M on the July 25 2026 points. Exact owner/name strings from the board rarely work as google search keywords; shorten to a public product phrase and note the rewrite, the way github/copilot-sdk became copilot sdk in the follow-up calls.
npm only helps when the package name matches. chatwoot is a clean match; most skill repos on the August 1 board are not npm packages at all. Do not invent download figures for those. For game and consumer attention outside developer feeds, the Steam Most Played API is the closer board.
Each get_top_trends page and each get_growth call counts as one request against the monthly pool. The free plan includes 100 requests per month. Starter is $19 per month for 1,000 requests, Pro is $49 for 5,000, and Business is $199 for 25,000. Annual billing saves 20%. Confirm current limits on pricing and compare free-tier options on the free trends API comparison page before locking an automation budget.
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