{
  "id": 13713375,
  "title": "Show HN launches now run on repos created days before posting. It used to be months.",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/11/show-hn-launches-now-run-on-repos-created-days-before-posting-it-used",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-11T12:31:50.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Dev.to",
    "slug": "dev-to",
    "url": "https://dev.to/pennyforgehq/show-hn-launches-now-run-on-repos-created-days-before-posting-it-used-to-be-months-3i90"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A recent analysis of GitHub's Show HN posts reveals a significant shift in the timeline of project launches. Historically, the top-performing posts ran on repositories that were months old. However, this pattern has changed dramatically. In 2026, the top decile of Show HN launches occurred on repositories that were a median of just 17 days old, a stark contrast to the 70-day median observed in 2024. This trend is even more pronounced, with 25% of top-decile launches happening on repositories that were 14 days old or less in 2026, up from 37% and 47% in the previous years.\n\nThe study, conducted on 430 repositories drawn from 19,983 unique GitHub-linked posts, found that the median time between a repository's creation and a launch has decreased from 322 days in 2024 to just 7 days in 2026. While it's important to note that these are percentile figures and not absolute counts, they highlight a clear trend towards quicker project lifecycles. Interestingly, even posts with fewer than 200 points, which often indicate less serious projects, show a similar trend, with a median of just 7 days in 2026.\n\nThe data also suggests that the composition of top-decile posts has shifted, with a growing emphasis on AI applications rather than traditional development tools. However, it's crucial to note that created_at does not represent work started. Repositories can be transferred, renamed, or have their visibility changed without altering the creation date, which only changes if a repository is deleted and recreated.",
  "summary": "Last month I published a dataset of 70,894 Show HN posts. The obvious follow-up was star trajectories: did hot launches keep growing? That study is now impossible for everyone. In July 2026 GitHub restricted the stargazers listing — and with it the star timestamps ( star+json ) and the GraphQL connection — to admins and collaborators, citing spam abuse (changelog 2026-06-30). We measured it live:…",
  "key_points": [
    "Top Show HN launches now on repositories 17 days old on average.",
    "Median time between repo creation and launch dropped from 322 days to 7 days.",
    "AI applications increasingly prominent in top-decile posts."
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}