GitStars

Interactive Jupyter notebook for browsing, filtering, curating, and opening your GitHub starred repositories.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE.

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• A GitHub token in GITHUB_TOKEN
• Jupyter Notebook or VS Code with notebook support

Get a GitHub token

1. Sign in to GitHub.
2. Open Personal access tokens.
3. Click Generate new token.
4. Choose either Fine-grained token or Tokens (classic).
5. For simple use, a classic token is usually easier.
6. Give it a name like GitStars.
7. Choose an expiration date.
8. For public starred repos, give it enough access to read your GitHub account data. If you need private repository access, use a token with broader repo read permissions.
9. Copy the token when GitHub shows it.

Important:

• Keep the token private.
• Do not commit the token into this repository.
• If a token is exposed, revoke it in GitHub and create a new one.

Security

• Never paste your GitHub token into the notebook or any tracked file.
• Prefer setting GITHUB_TOKEN only in your current shell session.
• If you accidentally expose a token in code, screenshots, or Git history, revoke it immediately and generate a new one.
• Before pushing this repo to GitHub, review files for secrets.
• If you share downloaded files or saved README files, they should contain repository data only and never your token.

Setup

Set the token in your shell before opening the notebook.

PowerShell:

$env:GITHUB_TOKEN="ghp_your_token_here"

Command Prompt:

set GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_your_token_here

To check that the token is set:

PowerShell:

echo $env:GITHUB_TOKEN

Command Prompt:

echo %GITHUB_TOKEN%

Open the notebook

Open GitStars.ipynb in Jupyter or VS Code.

PowerShell:

cd C:\Users\chich\Downloads\GitStars
jupyter notebook

Then open GitStars.ipynb, set your filters in the first cells, and run the notebook from top to bottom.

The notebook lets you:

• list and filter starred repos interactively
• preview a repo README inside the notebook
• open a repo in the browser
• save the README locally
• download the repo as a ZIP
• clone the repo locally

How to see the code

Open the notebook in VS Code:

code C:\Users\chich\Downloads\GitStars\GitStars.ipynb

Open the whole project folder:

code C:\Users\chich\Downloads\GitStars

If you want to inspect the raw notebook JSON in PowerShell:

Get-Content C:\Users\chich\Downloads\GitStars\GitStars.ipynb

If you want the notebook UI instead of raw JSON, open it in VS Code or Jupyter.

Suggested workflow

1. Set GITHUB_TOKEN in PowerShell or Command Prompt.
2. Open GitStars.ipynb.
3. Run the setup cells.
4. Adjust QUERY, LANGUAGE, MIN_STARS, SORT_BY, and TOP_N.
5. Pick a repo from the curated results.
6. Preview the README, open it in your browser, download it, or clone it.

Output files

• downloads/: ZIP files downloaded from GitHub
• clones/: repositories cloned locally
• *-README.md: README files saved from selected repos