dep-rank 0.1.0

Analyze GitHub repository dependents by star count. CLI + MCP server.

dep-rank

Rank GitHub dependents by stars.

dep-rank finds the most popular repositories that depend on a given GitHub project. It scrapes GitHub's dependents page, enriches results via the GraphQL API, and works as both a CLI tool and an MCP server for LLM assistants.

Quick Start

pip install dep-rank
dep-rank deps https://github.com/django/django

CLI Reference

dep-rank deps — List top dependents

dep-rank deps https://github.com/django/django
dep-rank deps https://github.com/django/django --rows 20 --min-stars 100
dep-rank deps https://github.com/django/django --descriptions --format json
dep-rank deps https://github.com/django/django --packages

Option	Default	Description
--rows	10	Number of results
--min-stars	5	Minimum star count filter
--format	table	Output format: table or json
--descriptions	off	Fetch descriptions via GitHub API (requires token)
--packages	off	Search packages instead of repositories
--token	DEP_RANK_TOKEN	GitHub token

dep-rank search — Search code in dependents

dep-rank search https://github.com/django/django "from django.db import"
dep-rank search https://github.com/django/django "middleware" --max-repos 20

Option	Default	Description
--max-repos	10	Maximum repos to search
--min-stars	50	Only search repos with this many stars
--token	DEP_RANK_TOKEN	GitHub token (required)

dep-rank mcp — Start MCP server

dep-rank mcp                                # STDIO (default)
dep-rank mcp --transport http --port 8000   # HTTP

dep-rank cache — Manage cache

dep-rank cache stats    # Show cache size
dep-rank cache clear    # Clear all cached data

MCP Server

dep-rank includes an MCP server for use with Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, and other MCP-compatible tools.

Tools

Tool	Description	Requires Token
get_top_dependents	List top dependents by stars	No
get_dependent_details	Enrich with descriptions via GraphQL	Yes
search_dependent_code	Search code across dependents	Yes

Prompts

Prompt	Description
analyze_ecosystem	Guided workflow for full ecosystem analysis
find_usage_patterns	Find how dependents use a specific API

Claude Desktop

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dep-rank": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["dep-rank-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "DEP_RANK_TOKEN": "ghp_your_token_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

Add to .mcp.json in your project:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dep-rank": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["dep-rank-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "DEP_RANK_TOKEN": "ghp_your_token_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

HTTP Deployment

DEP_RANK_TOKEN=ghp_xxx dep-rank mcp --transport http --port 8000

Authentication

Set the DEP_RANK_TOKEN environment variable with a GitHub personal access token:

export DEP_RANK_TOKEN=ghp_your_token_here

What works without a token:

• dep-rank deps — core scraping and star ranking

What requires a token:

• --descriptions flag — fetches repo descriptions via GitHub GraphQL API
• dep-rank search — code search across dependents
• MCP tools: get_dependent_details, search_dependent_code

Create a token at github.com/settings/tokens with public_repo scope.

How It Works

dep-rank uses a three-stage pipeline:

1. Scrape — fetches GitHub's /network/dependents HTML pages to discover all dependents and their approximate star counts
2. Enrich (optional) — one GraphQL batch query fetches accurate star counts and descriptions for the top N results (replaces 100 individual REST API calls)
3. Present — returns structured results as a Rich table (CLI) or Pydantic model (MCP)

Responses are cached in a local SQLite database (~/.cache/dep-rank/) with ETag support for conditional requests.

Development

# Prerequisites: Python 3.11+, uv
uv sync
uv run pytest
uv run ruff check .
uv run ruff format --check .
uv run mypy dep_rank/

Acknowledgments

dep-rank is a full rewrite of ghtopdep by Andriy Orehov. The original project is licensed under MIT.

License

MIT — see LICENSE for details.