ghnow

Browse GitHub trending repositories and developers from your terminal. View READMEs, export data, and skip the web interface entirely.

---

Features

• 🔥 Trending repos — browse today's / this week's / this month's hottest repositories
• 👩‍💻 Trending developers — see who's trending on GitHub right now
• 📖 README viewer — read any repo's README directly in your terminal
• 💾 Export — save results as JSON, CSV, or Markdown; save READMEs as .md files
• 🔎 Filters — by programming language, spoken language, and time range
• 📊 Multiple formats — rich table, compact list, or raw JSON (pipe to jq)
• 📧 Email Digest — automatically email yourself trending repos/devs on a schedule
• 🔐 GitHub token — optional GITHUB_TOKEN for higher API rate limits

Install

git clone https://github.com/smarkstrife/ghnow.git
cd ghnow
npm install
npm link

Requires Node.js 18+ (uses native fetch).

Quick Start

ghnow                           # today's trending repos
ghnow repos -l python -s weekly # Python repos, weekly
ghnow devs                      # trending developers
ghnow readme facebook/react     # view README in terminal

Commands

ghnow repos — Trending Repositories

This is the default command — ghnow with no arguments does the same thing.

ghnow repos                        # today's trending, table format
ghnow repos -l rust                # filter by language
ghnow repos -s weekly              # weekly trending
ghnow repos -s monthly             # monthly trending
ghnow repos --spoken en            # filter by spoken language
ghnow repos -n 10                  # limit to top 10
ghnow repos -f list                # compact one-line format
ghnow repos -f json                # JSON (great with jq)
ghnow repos -f json | jq '.[].name' # extract just repo names via jq
ghnow repos --export trending.json # export to file
ghnow repos --export trending.csv
ghnow repos --export trending.md

Option	Short	Description	Default
--language <lang>	-l	Programming language filter	All
--since <period>	-s	daily, weekly, or monthly	daily
--spoken <code>		Spoken language code (e.g. en, zh)	All
--format <type>	-f	table, list, or json	table
--limit <count>	-n	Max results	All
--export <file>	-e	Export to .json, .csv, or .md	—

ghnow devs — Trending Developers

ghnow devs                         # today's trending devs
ghnow devs -l javascript -s weekly # JS devs, weekly
ghnow devs -f json                 # JSON output
ghnow devs --export devs.csv       # export

Same options as repos (except --spoken).

ghnow readme <owner/repo> — View README

Renders a repository's README with full Markdown formatting in your terminal.

ghnow readme torvalds/linux
ghnow readme facebook/react
ghnow readme sxyazi/yazi --export yazi.md   # save as .md file

💡 Every time you view a README in terminal, a tip reminds you that you can export it as a markdown file for viewing in VS Code, Obsidian, etc.

Option	Short	Description
--export <file>	-e	Save raw markdown to file instead of displaying

ghnow email — Automated Email Digest

Receive trending updates automatically in your inbox on a schedule! Operates fully locally using system cron (Linux/macOS) — no external server required. Supports custom SMTP or Resend API.

ghnow email setup    # Interactive wizard to configure schedule and provider
ghnow email test     # Send a test digest immediately
ghnow email status   # View current configuration
ghnow email disable  # Stop emails and remove the scheduled job

Real-World Examples

1. The Python AI Researcher You want to see what's new in Python AI every Monday morning.

ghnow email setup
# -> Provider: SMTP (Your Gmail)
# -> Content: Repos & Devs
# -> Language: python
# -> Frequency: Weekly

2. The Frontend Pulse You want a daily digest of new JavaScript repositories without caring about developers.

ghnow email setup
# -> Provider: API (Resend)
# -> Content: Repos
# -> Language: javascript
# -> Frequency: Daily

📖 Deep Dive: Want to see more examples or learn how to verify your cron jobs? Check out the Email Digest Guide.

GitHub Token

The readme command uses the GitHub API (60 req/hr unauthenticated). For higher limits:

export GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_your_token_here   # 5,000 req/hr
ghnow readme torvalds/linux

How It Works

ghnow scrapes the public github.com/trending page — GitHub doesn't provide an official trending API. Results are cached for 5 minutes to avoid redundant requests.

Author

Shikhar Srivastava

License

MIT