OSS Sustain Guard

Note: Demo shows a warm cache; first run may take longer depending on API response time.

Multi-language package sustainability analyzer - Evaluate your dependencies' health with 24 core metrics including Contributor Redundancy, Maintainer Retention, and Security Signals.

Why OSS Sustain Guard?

Every time a high-profile OSS incident makes the news, I find myself wondering about the packages I rely on right now. I could visit GitHub and skim issues, pull requests, and activity to get a rough sense, but it is not easy. When you depend on tens or hundreds of packages, plus their dependencies, it becomes nearly impossible, and you usually do not notice until something goes wrong.

The libraries that support my work might be under heavy strain, and their own dependencies might be too. OSS Sustain Guard was built to answer those questions and to create moments where users can see the state of maintainers and communities. The first step is simple awareness.

💡 Project Philosophy

OSS Sustain Guard uses empathetic language and contextual metrics to help teams support the projects they rely on. We avoid judgment and recognize that sustainability looks different across communities and organizations.

We believe that:

• 🌱 Sustainability matters - Open-source projects need ongoing support to thrive
• 🤝 Community support is essential - For community-driven projects, we highlight funding opportunities to help users give back
• 📊 Transparency helps everyone - By providing objective metrics, we help maintainers and users make informed decisions
• 🎯 Respectful evaluation - We distinguish between corporate-backed and community-driven projects, recognizing their different sustainability models
• 💝 Supporting maintainers - When available, we display funding links for community projects to encourage direct support

Metrics are one lens among many; they work best alongside project context and real-world knowledge.

⚠️ Important: Understanding Metric Limitations

OSS Sustain Guard provides signals, not absolute truths. All metrics are based on publicly available data and have inherent limitations:

• Bus Factor (Contributor Redundancy) - Estimated from public commit history only. Does not account for:

  • Internal/corporate Git mirrors or private repositories
  • Non-code contributions (documentation, issue triage, community support)
  • Organizational knowledge transfer or succession planning
  • Full-time maintainers vs. part-time contributors

• Funding Signals - Shows only publicly visible funding links; many projects have private sponsorship or corporate backing not reflected in GitHub metadata

• Activity Metrics - Recent activity patterns may not reflect long-term health; mature, stable projects naturally have lower commit frequency

• Community Metrics - Based on observable interactions; does not capture private discussions, mailing lists, or chat platforms

Think of these metrics as conversation starters, not verdicts. They highlight areas worth investigating, but every project has unique circumstances. Use them as one input among many when making decisions about dependencies.

For critical dependencies, we recommend:

1. Review metrics as a starting point
2. Read project documentation and governance models
3. Check community discussions and maintainer communication
4. Consider the project's maturity stage and sustainability model
5. Engage with maintainers to understand their perspective

🎯 Key Features

• 24 Core Sustainability Metrics - Comprehensive evaluation across maintainer health, development activity, community engagement, project maturity, and security (all core metrics scored 0-10)
• Trend Analysis - Track how repository sustainability scores change over time across multiple time windows (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, annual)
• Pluggable Architecture - Easily extend analysis by adding your own sustainability metrics, language resolvers, and VCS providers as plugins.
• 5 CHAOSS-Aligned Models - Stability, Sustainability, Community Engagement, Project Maturity, and Contributor Experience
• Metric-Weighted Scoring - Configurable scoring profiles with integer weights per metric, normalized to 0-100 scale
• Custom Scoring Profiles - Define your own scoring profiles to tailor evaluation priorities for your organization or use case.
• Multi-Language Support - 9 ecosystems with direct package resolution (Python, JavaScript, Rust, Ruby, Go, PHP, Java, C#, Dart) + 15 total with lockfile support (extensible via plugins)
• LFX Insights Integration - Automatic badges and links to Linux Foundation Insights dashboards in HTML/JSON reports
• Community Support Awareness - Displays funding links for community-driven projects
• Local Caching - Efficient local cache for faster repeated checks
• CI/CD Integration - GitHub Actions, Pre-commit hooks
• Minimal Setup - Requires a GitHub token for most repos; a GitLab token is only needed when the source is on gitlab.com (use --demo to try it without one)

🔒 Privacy & Security

Your data stays local:

• ✅ GitHub/GitLab token usage - Your GITHUB_TOKEN or GITLAB_TOKEN is used only for real-time API queries on the matching host

  • Data flows directly from the GitHub/GitLab API → your machine
  • Token is not stored, logged, or sent anywhere except the host's official API
  • GitHub scopes: public_repo and security_events (read-only access)
  • GitLab scopes: read_api and read_repository

• ✅ Local caching - Analysis results are cached locally in ~/.cache/oss-sustain-guard/

  • No cloud storage or external uploads
  • You control the cache directory and can clear it anytime with os4g cache clear
  • Cache files are standard JSON　gzip with TTL metadata

• ✅ Analysis is transparent - All metrics are calculated client-side from public GitHub or GitLab data

  • No proprietary scoring sent to external services
  • No profiling or telemetry
  • Open-source metric implementations for full audit

API Limits & Sampling:

OSS Sustain Guard provides flexible data sampling to balance speed, accuracy, and API usage:

• Default mode: Balanced sampling (100 commits, 50 PRs, 20 issues, etc.)
• Shallow mode (--scan-depth shallow): Quick scan with fewer samples (~50% reduction)
• Deep mode (--scan-depth deep): Comprehensive analysis with more samples (~2x default)

You can also limit analysis to recent activity:

• --days-lookback 90 - Only analyze the last 3 months
• --days-lookback 180 - Only analyze the last 6 months

Default sample limits (balanced mode):

• Commits: Last 100 analyzed
• Pull Requests: Last 50 merged + last 50 closed sampled
• Issues: Last 20 open + last 50 closed sampled
• Releases: Last 10 analyzed

These samples are sufficient for evaluating sustainability trends. Results include sample counts so you can see exactly what data was used. For large projects with high activity, these limits mean you're seeing representative data rather than exhaustive data—which is intentional for API efficiency and speed.

🚀 Quick Start

Installation Options

Recommended for non-Python developers (isolated environment):

# Using pipx (recommended - isolated environment)
pipx install oss-sustain-guard

# Using uv tool (recommended - fast isolated environment)
uv tool install oss-sustain-guard

# Using Docker (no Python installation needed)
docker run --rm -e GITHUB_TOKEN=$GITHUB_TOKEN ghcr.io/onukura/oss-sustain-guard:latest check requests

For Python developers:

# Using pip (standard installation)
pip install oss-sustain-guard

# Try built-in demo data (no token required)
os4g check --demo
# Demo data is a snapshot for illustration and may differ from current repository status.

# Set GitHub token (classic) with public_repo and security_events scopes
export GITHUB_TOKEN='your_token_here'  # Get from: https://github.com/settings/tokens/new

# For GitLab-hosted repos (gitlab.com), set GITLAB_TOKEN with read_api and read_repository scopes
export GITLAB_TOKEN='your_token_here'  # Get from: https://gitlab.com/-/user_settings/personal_access_tokens

# Real-time analysis supports GitHub and GitLab (gitlab.com) repositories

# Check your dependencies (auto-detect from manifest files)
os4g check

# Check your dependencies including lock files
os4g check --include-lock

# Scan recursively (great for monorepos)
os4g check --recursive

# Check a single package
os4g check requests

# Check multiple packages (auto-detect language)
os4g check django flask numpy

# Multi-language support - package mode
os4g check python:requests npm:react rust:tokio go:github.com/gin-gonic/gin

# New ecosystems with package mode support
os4g check java:junit:junit:4.13.2 csharp:Newtonsoft.Json dart:http

# Mix and match ecosystems
os4g check python:requests java:org.slf4j:slf4j-api csharp:Newtonsoft.Json dart:http

# Adjust data sampling depth
os4g check requests --scan-depth shallow  # Quick scan (fewer samples)
os4g check requests --scan-depth deep     # Comprehensive scan (more samples)

# Analyze recent activity only
os4g check requests --days-lookback 90   # Last 3 months
os4g check requests --days-lookback 180  # Last 6 months

# Combine options for targeted analysis
os4g check --recursive --scan-depth deep --days-lookback 90

# Analyze sustainability trends over time
os4g trend requests                                  # Default: 6 monthly periods (Python)
os4g trend python:requests                           # Explicit ecosystem prefix
os4g trend flask -e python                           # Ecosystem flag
os4g trend javascript:react --periods 12 --interval weekly

# Export results to JSON
os4g check requests --output-format json --output-file oss-report.json

# Generate an HTML report
os4g check requests --output-format html --output-file oss-report.html

📚 Documentation

For detailed usage, configuration, and features, see our documentation site:

• Getting Started - Installation and basic usage
• Trend Analysis Guide - Track sustainability changes over time
• Scoring Profiles - Different evaluation perspectives
• Dependency Graph Visualization - Visualize dependency health networks
• GitHub Actions Integration - CI/CD setup
• Pre-Commit Hooks - Automated checks
• Exclude Packages - Configuration
• FAQ - Common questions

Supported Ecosystems

Package Mode (Direct Resolution)

Trace dependencies directly from package registries:

• Python (uv) - python:requests or just requests
• JavaScript (npm, pnpm, bun) - javascript:express or npm:lodash
• Rust (cargo) - rust:tokio
• Ruby (bundler) - ruby:rails
• Go (go) - go:github.com/gin-gonic/gin
• PHP (composer) - php:symfony/console
• Java (maven) - java:junit:junit:4.13.2 or java:org.slf4j:slf4j-api
• C# (dotnet) - csharp:Newtonsoft.Json
• Dart (dart/pub) - dart:http

Lockfile Mode

Parse dependencies from existing lockfiles:

Python, JavaScript, Go, Rust, PHP, Java, Kotlin, C#, Ruby, R, Haskell, Swift, Dart, Elixir, Perl

Extensible: Add support for additional ecosystems by creating custom resolver plugins.

See Getting Started for ecosystem-specific syntax and examples.

Repository Source Handling

• GitHub-hosted repositories: ✅ Full real-time analysis supported (requires GITHUB_TOKEN)
• GitLab-hosted repositories (gitlab.com): ✅ Real-time analysis supported (requires GITLAB_TOKEN)
  • If CI data is not available, Build Health is listed under skipped metrics.
• Other hosts (Gitea, SourceForge, etc.): ℹ️ Detected and skipped
  • The tool will display a note indicating the repository host and skip real-time analysis.
• Extensible VCS support: Add support for additional version control systems via plugins.

24 Core Sustainability Metrics

Evaluated across 5 categories:

• Maintainer Health (25%) - Contributor diversity and retention
• Development Activity (20%) - Release rhythm and recent activity
• Community Engagement (20%) - Issue/PR responsiveness
• Project Maturity (15%) - Documentation and governance
• Security & Funding (20%) - Security posture and sustainability

Score interpretation: 80-100 (Healthy) | 50-79 (Monitor) | 0-49 (Needs support)

Special Features

• 🎁 Gratitude Vending Machine - Discover community projects that need support

  os4g gratitude --top 5

• 💰 Community Funding Links - Auto-displays funding options for community-driven projects

🤝 Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup, testing, code style, and architecture documentation.

📝 Documentation

• Trend Analysis Guide - Track sustainability changes over time
• Scoring Profiles Guide - Different evaluation perspectives
• Dependency Graph Visualization - Visualize dependency health networks
• Custom Metrics Guide - Create your own sustainability metrics
• Custom Resolvers Guide - Add support for new package ecosystems
• Custom VCS Providers Guide - Add support for new version control systems
• Pre-Commit Integration - Hook configuration
• GitHub Actions Guide - CI/CD setup
• Exclude Packages Guide - Package filtering

📄 License

MIT License