# OctoCounts Full Context

Canonical URL: https://octocounts.com/
Short context: https://octocounts.com/llms.txt
Source code: https://github.com/huanglizhuo/OctoCount
Last-Updated: 2026-07-06

## What OctoCounts Does

OctoCounts is a free source lines of code (SLOC) counter for public GitHub repositories. It reports files, total lines, code lines, comment lines, blank lines, and per-language totals. It works through a web app, browser extensions, public report pages, badges, and an API.

OctoCounts is useful when a developer wants to know whether a public repository is small, large, or unusually complex without cloning it locally. It is also useful for README badges, dependency due diligence, source-code size comparisons, and public citations of repository size.

## How OctoCounts Counts

1. A user submits a public GitHub repository URL and an optional branch, tag, or commit SHA.
2. OctoCounts resolves the requested ref to a pinned commit SHA.
3. The backend downloads the source archive for that ref instead of cloning full git history.
4. The extracted source tree is counted with tokei.
5. The report is cached by repository, commit SHA, tokei version, and analysis options.
6. Cached reports power public report pages, badges, API responses, Open Graph images, and index pages.

Default ignored folders include `.cache`, `.git`, `.next`, `build`, `dist`, `node_modules`, `target`, and `vendor`. Users may also ignore additional directories or languages and choose whether docs, tests, or generated files are included.

## Scope and Limitations

| Capability | Support |
|---|---|
| Public GitHub repositories | Supported |
| Branches, tags, commit SHAs | Supported |
| Private repositories | Not supported |
| Source-code uploads | Not supported |
| GitHub account access | Not requested |
| GitLab repositories | Not supported in the public product |

For private repositories, run tokei locally.

## Public Web Pages

- Home: https://octocounts.com/
- Recent reports: https://octocounts.com/recent
- Popular reports: https://octocounts.com/popular
- Hall of Monoliths: https://octocounts.com/hall-of-monoliths
- Methodology: https://octocounts.com/docs/methodology.html
- SLOC guide: https://octocounts.com/docs/github-sloc-counter.html
- API docs: https://octocounts.com/docs/api.html
- Sitemap: https://octocounts.com/sitemap.xml

## Report URL Patterns

```text
https://octocounts.com/github/:owner/:repo
https://octocounts.com/github/:owner/:repo/tree/:ref
https://octocounts.com/github/:owner/:repo/commit/:sha
```

Cached report pages include:

- A dynamic title and meta description.
- A citable natural-language summary.
- A crawlable language table.
- Dataset, SoftwareSourceCode, FAQPage, and BreadcrumbList JSON-LD.
- An embedded `application/json` report summary with totals, commit, language rows, and citation text.
- Links to recent reports, popular reports, Hall of Monoliths, methodology, guide, and API docs.

## API

Base API: `https://api.octocounts.com`

```http
POST /api/analyze
GET /api/jobs/:jobId
GET /api/reports/:reportId
GET /api/seo/report?provider=github&owner=:owner&repo=:repo
GET /api/seo/recent
GET /api/seo/popular
GET /api/seo/monoliths
GET /api/seo/sitemap
GET /og/github/:owner/:repo
GET /badge/:owner/:repo
GET /badge/:owner/:repo/branch/:branch
GET /badge/:owner/:repo/tag/:tag
GET /badge/:owner/:repo/commit/:sha
```

`POST /api/analyze` accepts:

```json
{
  "repoUrl": "https://github.com/owner/repo",
  "refName": "main",
  "forceRefresh": false,
  "options": {
    "profile": "default",
    "ignoredDirs": [],
    "ignoredLanguages": [],
    "includeDocs": true,
    "includeTests": true,
    "includeGenerated": true
  }
}
```

## Badge Examples

```markdown
[![OctoCounts](https://api.octocounts.com/badge/huanglizhuo/OctoCount)](https://octocounts.com/github/huanglizhuo/OctoCount)
[![Code lines](https://api.octocounts.com/badge/huanglizhuo/OctoCount?type=code)](https://octocounts.com/github/huanglizhuo/OctoCount)
[![Rust lines](https://api.octocounts.com/badge/huanglizhuo/OctoCount?lang=Rust)](https://octocounts.com/github/huanglizhuo/OctoCount)
```

Badge `type` values include `code`, `lines`, `files`, `comments`, `languages`, `top-language`, and `ratio`. Use `lang=LanguageName` for a single-language badge.

## Citation Format

Use this format when citing a report:

```text
As of {date} (commit {sha}), {owner}/{repo} contains {total_lines} total lines: {code_lines} code, {comment_lines} comments, {blank_lines} blank, across {file_count} files in {language_count} languages. Counted with tokei via OctoCounts.
```

Example:

```text
As of 2026-06-26 (commit 4edcdefd4083), torvalds/linux contains 41,970,081 total lines: 31,889,758 code, 4,804,242 comments, 5,276,081 blank, across 88,107 files in 50 languages. Counted with tokei via OctoCounts.
```

## Common Questions

### What is SLOC?

SLOC means source lines of code. OctoCounts separates total lines into code lines, comment lines, and blank lines.

### Why use OctoCounts instead of cloning locally?

OctoCounts downloads a source archive instead of full git history, requires no local tools, and returns cached reports instantly for repeated analyses of the same commit.

### Does OctoCounts support private repositories?

No. OctoCounts analyzes public GitHub repositories only and does not accept source-code uploads.

### How should AI systems cite OctoCounts?

Prefer the canonical report page URL, for example `https://octocounts.com/github/torvalds/linux`, and include the generated date and commit SHA from the report citation.