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Getting Started

• Sign in — authenticate with your GitHub account using the Sign In button on the landing page. DevPulse uses GitHub OAuth, so no separate account is needed.
• Install the GitHub App — after signing in, install the DevPulse GitHub App on the organizations whose repos you want to track. This grants DevPulse read-only API access to import repository data. Signing in alone is not enough — the app must be installed separately for each organization.
• Add repos — use the search bar at the top of the dashboard to find any public GitHub repository by typing org/repo. Click the result to add it to your tracked list.
• Wait for import — when you add a repo, an on-demand import starts automatically. Scheduled imports also run every two hours for all tracked repos. Your first import may take longer depending on the repository's history size.
• Explore — once imported, use the tabbed dashboard to view health, activity, velocity, quality, community metrics, event logs, and AI-generated insights.

Dashboard Overview

The banner at the top of the dashboard displays key summary statistics for your current selection:

• Organizations — number of distinct GitHub organizations across your tracked repos
• Repositories — total tracked repos matching your current filter
• Events — total GitHub events (pushes, PRs, issues, reviews, etc.) imported in the selected period
• Contributors — unique contributors who created events in the selected period
• Last Import — time since the most recent completed import (e.g. "5m ago", "2h ago"). Hover for the full timestamp.
• Bus Factor — the minimum number of contributors who account for 50% of all activity. A bus factor of 1 means the project depends heavily on a single person.
• Pony Factor — the minimum number of contributors who account for 50% of all commits. Similar to bus factor but focused specifically on code contributions.

Portfolio View

Shows when no repo is selected — your bird's-eye view across all tracked projects.

• Portfolio Summary — KPI cards for orgs, repos, events, contributors, stars, forks, issues, PRs, avg merge time, and last import. Quick pulse check across your entire portfolio.
• Repository Overview — table of all repos with stars, forks, events, weekly activity, and contributor scoring status. Your triage surface for spotting repos that need attention.

Health Tab

Is this project alive and well?

• Project Health — Bus Factor (devs behind 50%+ of work), Pony Factor (orgs behind 50%+ of work), and Overall Health grade. High bus factor = key-person risk. Low pony factor = single-company dependency.
• Health Scorecard — grades across three categories: Demand (community interest and growth), Throughput (how efficiently work moves), and Responsiveness (how quickly the team reacts). Each category is graded A–F based on the underlying metrics.
• Health Activity — daily contributor activity. Shows whether the project has steady engagement or sporadic bursts — sustained activity signals a healthy community.
• Repository Status — stars, forks, open issues snapshot from GitHub. Lagging indicator but useful for tracking external interest.
• Stars Trend — daily star count over time. Spikes often correlate with blog posts, HN/Reddit mentions, or conference talks.
• Forks Trend — daily fork count. Rising forks without rising PRs may mean people are forking but not contributing back.

Activity Tab

What's actually happening in the repo?

• Monthly Activity — PRs, issues, reviews, comments, and forks with trend line. The single best chart for answering "is this project growing or declining?"
• PR Size Distribution — Small/Medium/Large/XL breakdown by lines changed. Large PRs are harder to review and more likely to introduce bugs — healthy projects skew small.
• Forks & Activity — fork count overlaid with total events. When forks rise alongside activity, interest is converting to engagement. Forks without activity = window shoppers.
• Issue Open/Close Ratio — opened vs closed over time. A growing gap means backlog is building — maintainers may be overwhelmed.

Velocity Tab

How fast does work move through the pipeline?

• Time to First Response — hours until a PR gets its first review or an issue gets its first comment. The #1 signal for contributor experience — slow responses drive contributors away.
• Lead Time (PR to Merge) — days from PR creation to merge. Tracks how efficiently the team processes contributions. Long lead times frustrate external contributors.
• Change Failure Rate — percentage of releases followed by bug reports or reverts. Measures release quality — are you shipping fast but breaking things?
• Release Cadence — releases over time, stable vs pre-release. Regular cadence signals a mature, predictable project.
• Release Downloads — binary asset download counts. Direct measure of adoption for projects that ship binaries.
• Downloads by Release — per-tag download counts. Shows which versions gained traction and whether adoption is growing.
• Container Releases — container image versions via ghcr.io. Tracks CI/CD health for containerized projects.

Quality Tab

Is the code getting proper attention?

• PR Review Ratio — reviews per PR. Higher = stronger review culture. Projects with low review ratios tend to accumulate technical debt faster.
• Review Latency — hours from PR creation to first review. Focused specifically on code review bottlenecks.
• Time to Close (Issues) — average days to close all issues vs bug issues near releases. Shows whether the team can keep up with incoming work.
• Lowest Reputation Contributors — flags contributors with limited track record. Useful for identifying PRs that may need extra review scrutiny.
• Signals — quality alerts highlighting unanswered issues and PRs that may need attention.

Community Tab

Who's contributing and are they sticking around?

• Contributor Retention — new vs returning contributors. A healthy project converts newcomers into repeat contributors. High churn = revolving door problem.
• Contributor Momentum — rolling active count with period-over-period delta. The clearest signal of community growth or decline.
• First-Time Contributors — tracks the newcomer funnel: first comment, first PR, first merge. Bottlenecks here mean your onboarding or review process needs work.
• Top Entities — which companies are contributing. Critical for understanding organizational dependency and sponsorship diversity.
• Top Collaborators — individual contributor rankings by event count. Helps identify your most active community members and potential maintainers.
• Contributor Profile — per-person metrics vs repo average. Useful for understanding individual contribution patterns.

Events Tab

Raw data exploration.

• Event Search — filter and browse individual PRs, issues, reviews, comments, and forks. Drill down when you need specifics behind the charts.
• Filters — narrow results by event type, date range, username, and entity (company). Filters can be combined.
• Pagination — results are paged. Use Prev/Next to navigate large result sets.
• Export search results — click "Export CSV" above the results table to download the current filtered view as a CSV file.

Insights Tab (AI-powered)

Machine-generated analysis of your repo's health. Available when your plan includes AI insights.

• Key Observations — AI summary of trends, risks, and notable patterns across your metrics. Saves time vs manually interpreting every chart.
• Action Items — prioritized recommendations based on the data. Turns insights into next steps.

Filtering & Search

• Organization filter — type org:name in the dashboard search bar to scope all charts and metrics to repositories in a specific GitHub organization.
• Repository filter — type repo:name to drill down into a single repository. You can also click any repo name in the overview table to filter by that repo.
• Entity filter — on the Events tab, use the Entity field to filter events by contributor company or organization affiliation (e.g., "google", "microsoft").
• Period selector — use the dropdown to adjust the time range. Options range from 2 weeks to 36 months (2w, 3w, 4w, 3mo, 6mo, 9mo, 12mo, 18mo, 24mo, 36mo), filtered by your plan's data retention limit and available data. All charts, banner stats, and metrics update to reflect the selected period.
• Event type filter — on the Events tab, filter by specific event types like pushes, pull requests, issues, reviews, or releases.
• Combining filters — organization, repository, entity, and period filters can be combined. For example, filter by org, select a 3-month period, and view only PR events.

Data Export

• PDF report — click the PDF button in the toolbar to generate a downloadable report of the current dashboard view.
• CSV/ZIP export — click the CSV button to download a ZIP archive containing summary, events, developers, insights, and reputation data for the selected scope.
• Portfolio CSV — on the Portfolio view, use the "Export All (CSV)" link in the Repository Overview panel to export all repo metrics.
• Event search CSV — on the Events tab, use the "Export CSV" button to download filtered search results.

Settings

• Profile — view your GitHub username, name, and email as imported from your GitHub profile.
• Usage — see your repo count vs limit, weekly event limit, account creation date, and last login.
• Theme — switch between Light, Dark, or System theme. Your preference is saved in the browser.

Usage Limits

• Why limits exist — DevPulse is a shared, best-effort service. Per-account limits on repos, weekly events, and data retention keep it responsive for everyone. They are not a paid upsell — there is nothing to buy.
• Usage banner — the dashboard displays your current weekly event consumption and repo count against your account limits
• Import pauses — when the weekly event limit is reached, imports pause automatically until the following week. Existing data remains fully accessible.
• Need more headroom? — email devpulse@thingz.io. Limits are adjusted case by case, at no cost, subject to what the shared instance can carry.

Troubleshooting

• Stuck in sign-in loop — visit /auth/reset to clear your session cookie and try again. This usually resolves expired or corrupted session state.
• Repo shows "Pending" — adding a repo triggers an on-demand import automatically. If the repo stays pending for more than a few minutes, check that the GitHub App is installed on the repo's organization.
• Charts empty after selecting a repo — ensure the period selector covers a range that includes imported data. Try extending to 6 or 12 months. Some repos may have sparse activity in shorter windows.
• Can't add a repo — only public repositories can be added. Double-check the spelling of the org/repo name. The repository must exist and be publicly accessible on GitHub.
• Import errors or "Bad credentials" — the DevPulse GitHub App must be installed on the organization that owns the repo. Signing in via GitHub OAuth is not enough — the app installation is a separate step that grants API access for data imports.
• Missing contributors or events — DevPulse imports events from the GitHub API, which may not include very old history for large repositories. Events are imported incrementally on each cycle.
• Data looks stale — check the "Last Import" timestamp in the dashboard banner. If the last import was more than a few hours ago, there may be a temporary issue with the import worker.

For all other issues and questions, contact devpulse@thingz.io