Key Metrics Guide
Welcome to the Key Metrics Guide, where we define the main metrics used on our platform to help users better understand them.
OSCR
OSCR stands for Open Source Contributor Rating. It is a way to measure and rate the impact of a user's open-source contributions over 90 days.
This metric helps to determine the quality and frequency of a contributor's contributions. It is determined by their ability to engage in conversations about their work and the project, their rate of contributions to the projects they engage with, and the quality of their contributions.
Read more about what it is and how to improve it.
Contributor Confidence
Contributor Confidence is a metric that measures how likely users who have interacted with a repository via stars or forks are to contribute in some way. It is measured as a percentage calculated over a specified time range.
This helps potential users understand whether the project welcomes new contributors. A positive score implies that the project is welcoming, that contributions are likely to be accepted, and that participation in the community is nurtured.
Read more about what it is and how it can be interpreted.
OpenSSF Score
The OpenSSF Score is a metric that measures how secure an open-source project is based on how compliant the repository is to OpenSSF’s standards. It's scored out of 10 and uses OpenSSF’s CLI tool under the hood to help calculate this score.
OpenSSF refers to the Open Source Security Foundation, a group of security-focused tech professionals who are trying to enable the open-source ecosystem to create safe, open software in compliance with the EU’s Cyber Resilience Act.
This helps users understand and evaluate how secure a repository is and how attentive maintainers are to compliance issues. It is a good metric to consider when contributing to a repository.
Additionally, SBOMs (Software Bill of Materials) can be created for projects used. This contains a list of all the parts used to build software, including dependencies and libraries. Read more about SBOM here.
Read more about what it is and why it is important.
Lottery Factor
Lottery Factor is a metric that measures the risk that comes with a project’s dependence on one or a few key contributors. It measures how many pull requests are made by the most active contributors as a percentage.
This helps users understand whether a repository is at risk of abandonment should a key contributor become unavailable. This information is particularly important if a contributor plans to remain a long-term contributor or if a project relies on an open-source project for the long term.
Read more about what it is and how it can be interpreted.
Repositories as a Dataset
Repositories as a Dataset refers to viewing repositories as complete and in-depth information sources. It suggests holistically treating repositories by considering GitHub discussions, issues, and general activity and considering the history of entire repositories.
In the context of AI and its role in aiding developers, treating Repositories as a dataset helps train more context-aware AI models and makes this information more accessible.
This is helpful, as having more context around a repository can make contributing and onboarding much smoother.
Read more about the case for treating repositories as datasets and why that is important.
YOLO Coders
YOLO Coders refers to repository owners, contributors or maintainers who push code changes directly to a project's default branch without going through a pull request (PR).
Proposing changes through PRs helps increase visibility and offers an opportunity for code reviews and discussions. This increases collaboration and makes potential contributors more likely to engage.
Using PRs and established means of making code changes reduces the chances of project bugs and preserves project history.
Read more about what it is and why it is not the best practice.