GitHub & NPM Sourcing Toolkit

Find engineers where they actually hang out. Not where they pretend to.

LinkedIn is a highlight reel. GitHub is the game tape.

This toolkit gives you four CLI tools that work individually or together as a full sourcing pipeline. Find high-signal repos, pull top contributors, deep-evaluate profiles, and generate a ranked outreach shortlist. All from your terminal.

No subscriptions. No browser extensions. No begging an engineer to help you find engineers.

The Tools

Tool	What it does
`repofinder.js`	Find high-signal GitHub repos by tech stack
`sourcer.js`	Pull top contributors from any repo or NPM package
`profiler.js`	Deep-evaluate a specific GitHub profile
`recruit.js`	Full pipeline. Runs all three tools in one command.

When to use which

Use recruit.js when you're starting from scratch and want a ready-to-use outreach shortlist from a single command.

Use the individual tools when you already know the repo, the username, or just want one piece of the pipeline.

Before You Start

Node.js v18+ Download and install from nodejs.org. Check if you have it:

node --version

A GitHub Personal Access Token One token works for all four tools.

Go to github.com/settings/tokens
Click Generate new token > Generate new token (classic)
Name it sourcing-toolkit
Leave all permissions unchecked. We only read public data.
Click Generate token and copy it immediately. GitHub won't show it again.

Setup

# Clone this repo
git clone https://github.com/gabesparks/github-npm-sourcing-guide.git
cd github-npm-sourcing-guide

# No npm install needed. All four tools have zero external dependencies.

recruit.js: Full Pipeline

The flagship tool. Give it a tech stack and it finds repos, pulls contributors, evaluates profiles, and outputs a ranked shortlist ready for outreach.

Usage

GH_TOKEN=<token> node recruit.js --stack <tech,tech> [options]

Options

Flag	Default	Description
`--stack`	required	Tech stack to search. e.g. `react,nodejs,typescript`
`--top-repos`	3	Number of repos to source from
`--top-contributors`	10	Contributors to pull per repo
`--min-stars`	500	Minimum stars for target repos
`--skip-profile`	off	Skip deep profile evaluation for speed
`--csv`	off	Export results to a CSV file

Examples

# Standard run - finds repos, pulls contributors, evaluates profiles
GH_TOKEN=ghp_xxxx node recruit.js --stack react,nodejs

# Wider net - 5 repos, 15 contributors each
GH_TOKEN=ghp_xxxx node recruit.js --stack typescript,react --top-repos 5 --top-contributors 15

# Web3 / crypto hiring
GH_TOKEN=ghp_xxxx node recruit.js --stack solidity,ethereum,web3 --top-repos 3

# Fast mode - skips deep profiling, just sourcer signals
GH_TOKEN=ghp_xxxx node recruit.js --stack python,django --skip-profile

# Export to CSV for your ATS
GH_TOKEN=ghp_xxxx node recruit.js --stack nodejs,typescript --csv

Sample Output

====================================================================================================
  OUTREACH SHORTLIST
  Stack: react, nodejs  |  Sourced from: freeCodeCamp/freeCodeCamp, vercel/next.js
====================================================================================================

#    Username             Name                 Score    Grade   Email                       Repos  Links
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1    ijjk                 JJ Kasper            87/100   A       jj@jjsweb.site              1      jjsweb.site | @_ijjk
2    raisedadead          Mrugesh Mohapatra    80/100   B                                   1      mrugesh.dev | @raisedadead
3    huozhi               Jiachi Liu           76/100   B                                   1      huozhi.im | @huozhi
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  TOP PICKS

  1. @ijjk (JJ Kasper) — 87/100 (A)
     Email:    jj@jjsweb.site
     Website:  https://jjsweb.site
     Twitter:  @_ijjk
     Location: San Francisco, CA
     Profile:  https://github.com/ijjk
     Active in: vercel/next.js

How the Combined Score Works

Each candidate is scored across three dimensions:

Component	Weight	Source
Sourcer signals	40%	Contributions, followers, repos, public email, hireable status
Profile evaluation	50%	Activity, code quality, documentation, collaboration depth
Cross-repo bonus	up to +15pts	Appearing in multiple target repos is a strong signal

repofinder.js: Find Target Repos

Finds high-signal GitHub repositories by tech stack. Use this when you need to identify which repos to target before running sourcer.js.

Usage

GH_TOKEN=<token> node repofinder.js --stack <tech,tech> [--top N] [--min-stars N] [--csv]

Examples

# Find top 10 repos for a React/Node stack
GH_TOKEN=ghp_xxxx node repofinder.js --stack react,nodejs

# Web3 repos with higher bar
GH_TOKEN=ghp_xxxx node repofinder.js --stack solidity,ethereum --min-stars 1000

# Export to CSV
GH_TOKEN=ghp_xxxx node repofinder.js --stack python,ml --top 15 --csv

Supported Stack Terms

JavaScript: javascript typescript nodejs react vue svelte nextjs express redux

Python: python django fastapi flask

Systems: go rust java kotlin swift

Web3: web3 ethereum solidity solana bitcoin defi

Infrastructure: kubernetes docker terraform aws

ML/AI: ml ai pytorch tensorflow

sourcer.js: Pull Contributors

Point it at any GitHub repo or NPM package and get a ranked, enriched list of top contributors. Bots automatically filtered out.

Usage

GH_TOKEN=<token> node sourcer.js <owner/repo or npm-package> [--top N] [--csv]

Examples

# Top 10 contributors to a repo
GH_TOKEN=ghp_xxxx node sourcer.js expressjs/express

# NPM package - auto-resolves to its GitHub repo
GH_TOKEN=ghp_xxxx node sourcer.js lodash --top 20

# Export to CSV
GH_TOKEN=ghp_xxxx node sourcer.js vercel/next.js --csv

How the Signal Score Works

Signal	Points	Why it matters
Contributions to this repo	up to 40	Active in this codebase specifically
Followers	up to 20	Community recognition
Public repos	up to 15	Breadth of work
Public email listed	10	Easy to reach
Marked as hireable	10	They said they're open
Website linked	5	Professional presence
Twitter/X linked	5	Active in the community

profiler.js: Deep Profile Evaluation

Takes a GitHub username and returns a detailed five-category scorecard. Use this to evaluate specific candidates before reaching out.

Usage

GH_TOKEN=<token> node profiler.js <username> [--json]

Examples

# Full scorecard
GH_TOKEN=ghp_xxxx node profiler.js sindresorhus

# JSON output for piping into other tools
GH_TOKEN=ghp_xxxx node profiler.js sindresorhus --json

What It Evaluates

Category	What it looks at
Profile Completeness	Name, photo, bio, location, email, website, Twitter, hireable
Activity and Consistency	Account age, repo count, followers, last active, activity variety
Code Quality Signals	Stars received, language diversity, original vs. forks, recent maintenance
README and Documentation	Repo descriptions, topics, homepage links, community reception
Collaboration Depth	PR reviews, pull requests, issue participation, external contributions

Grading Scale

Grade	Score	Meaning
A	85-100	Exceptional. Strong signal across the board.
B	65-84	Solid. Worth a conversation.
C	50-64	Mixed signals. Dig deeper first.
D	35-49	Thin public profile. May be stronger than GitHub suggests.
F	0-34	Limited signal. Try other sourcing channels.

The Bookmarklet: Quick PR History

Drop this into your bookmarks bar and click it on any GitHub profile to instantly see their full PR history:

javascript:(function() {
  const match = window.location.href.match(/github\.com\/([^/?#]+)/);
  const username = match?.[1];
  const excluded = ['search', 'pulls', 'issues', 'explore', 'topics'];
  if (username && !excluded.includes(username)) {
    window.location.href = `https://github.com/pulls?q=is%3Apr+author%3A${encodeURIComponent(username)}+archived%3Afalse`;
  } else {
    alert('No GitHub username detected on this page.');
  }
})();

To install: Right-click your bookmarks bar, add a new bookmark, paste the script as the URL.

Finding the Right Repos

Both repofinder.js and recruit.js automate this, but good inputs make better outputs:

Ask your hiring team. During intake: "Which libraries or tools does your team use or respect?" Those repos attract exactly the people you want.

Check strong candidates you already have. Which repos do they contribute to? Run the tools against those.

Use GitHub topic search. github.com/topics filtered by most stars or most forks.

Follow the dependency trail. Find out what your product depends on, then find who builds it.

Troubleshooting

401 Unauthorized Your token is wrong or expired. Generate a new one.

403 Forbidden Rate limited. GitHub allows 5,000 requests/hour on authenticated calls. Wait and try again.

404 Not Found Check the repo name or username. Both are case-sensitive.

NPM package not resolving. Pass the GitHub repo directly instead: owner/repo.

No repos found. Try lowering --min-stars or simplifying your --stack terms.

Output looks misaligned. The tables are formatted for a standard terminal width. Try making your terminal window wider.

Related Guides

GitHub Sourcing Playbook - The step-by-step methodology that pairs with these tools
Twitter/X Sourcing Playbook - Finding technical talent where they talk about what they're building

Built for recruiters who want to source like engineers think: systematically, signal-first, and without begging anyone for a LinkedIn InMail credit.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 15 Commits
README.md		README.md
profiler.js		profiler.js
recruit.js		recruit.js
repofinder.js		repofinder.js
sourcer.js		sourcer.js

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GitHub & NPM Sourcing Toolkit

Find engineers where they actually hang out. Not where they pretend to.

The Tools

When to use which

Before You Start

Setup

recruit.js: Full Pipeline

Usage

Options

Examples

Sample Output

How the Combined Score Works

repofinder.js: Find Target Repos

Usage

Examples

Supported Stack Terms

sourcer.js: Pull Contributors

Usage

Examples

How the Signal Score Works

profiler.js: Deep Profile Evaluation

Usage

Examples

What It Evaluates

Grading Scale

The Bookmarklet: Quick PR History

Finding the Right Repos

Troubleshooting

Related Guides

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