Example install for the GitHub Stars Badge — part of the FeedPulse free widget suite.
Renders a small ⭐-count pill showing the live star total for any public GitHub repository. Looks like this:
⭐ 42,341 GitHub Stars
The badge is a single async <script> — fetches the count from FeedPulse's server-side cache (refreshed hourly), so embedding it on 100 pages doesn't trigger GitHub's rate limit.
shields.io is excellent and we recommend it for general README badges. This widget exists because:
- No rate-limit cliff — high-traffic blog or docs page won't get its badges throttled at scale (FeedPulse caches; shields proxies).
- Themeable beyond colour — pick from light, dark, obsidian, mint, sand presets; or supply your own hex codes.
- Larger formats available — render as a hero pill (great for landing pages) instead of just a SVG line-badge.
- Includes the FeedPulse attribution — the small "via FeedPulse" link beside the badge gives indie projects a way to discover the rest of the free widget suite.
<script async src="https://feed-pulse.com/api/github_stars?repo=OWNER/REPO"></script>Replace OWNER/REPO with any public repo path — e.g. facebook/react, torvalds/linux, nodejs/node.
| Param | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
repo |
(required) | owner/repo — e.g. vercel/next.js |
theme |
obsidian |
Visual theme — obsidian, mint, sand, light, dark |
poll |
3600000 |
Refresh interval in ms (1 hour default — going lower has no effect, the server cache is 1h) |
lang |
auto |
Label language — en, es, fr, de, pt, it, ru, ja, zh, ar, hi, nl |
- Open-source project landing pages — show your star count above the fold without an API key
- Developer portfolios — display stars for repos you maintain or contributed to
- Tech blog posts — embed a star count beside any mentioned repo for instant context
- Documentation sites — Docusaurus, MkDocs, GitBook pages where SVG badges feel too plain
- Newsletter signatures — embed in your weekly indie-dev newsletter HTML template
A few star badges from our own example pages:
<!-- React -->
<script async src="https://feed-pulse.com/api/github_stars?repo=facebook/react&theme=obsidian"></script>
<!-- Next.js -->
<script async src="https://feed-pulse.com/api/github_stars?repo=vercel/next.js&theme=mint"></script>
<!-- Linux kernel -->
<script async src="https://feed-pulse.com/api/github_stars?repo=torvalds/linux&theme=sand"></script>Customize and copy your snippet at feed-pulse.com/free-github-stars-badge.
19 free embeddable widgets at feed-pulse.com/widgets — including npm downloads, Discord members, live traffic, weather, crypto/stock tickers, and more.