OSS Portfolio · Glossary

Glossary

Plain-English explanations of the terms used across this portfolio — what each one means, and how it's worked out from the underlying GitHub activity.

Portfolio-wide metrics

Terms for the numbers shown at the top of this page — how much work is on record, and whether it’s still active right now.

Contributions on record: Every contribution logged across every kind, from the very first one on GitHub to now.; How it's calculated

Adds up merged pull requests, issues, reviewed pull requests, co-authored pull requests, and collaborations — plus any confirmed contribution GitHub's API couldn't return enough detail on to sort into one of those categories.
Repos maintained: How many repositories are actively maintained, not just contributed to.; How it's calculated

A hand-kept list of maintainer repos, separate from the wider set of repos touched by contributions.
Last active: How recently the most recent contribution, of any kind, actually happened.; How it's calculated

Finds the latest timestamp across every contribution kind and shows it as a relative time, like "3D ago" or "2mo ago".
Contributions in the past year: How much of the total work happened recently — a read on whether the record is still active, not just large.; How it's calculated

Counts every contribution, across every kind, timestamped within the 365 days up to the last time the data was synced.

Reading the pattern

Terms used in the "Reading the pattern" section of this page — the persona the log currently ranks first, and the numbers behind that read.

Collaboration profile: A label for the primary way of contributing to the community.; How it's calculated

Looks at contribution frequency across every category, then picks the label that fits best — for example, "Community Mentor" for a high volume of reviews.
PRs reviewed: The count behind the collaboration profile, in whichever category currently has the most contributions — PRs reviewed today, but it could read PRs merged, issues reported, PRs co-authored, or collaborations if the mix shifts.; How it's calculated

The contribution count for that one leading category, from the same totals used in the breakdown further down the page.
Share of all contributions: What portion of every categorized contribution belongs to the leading category above.; How it's calculated

That category's count divided by the total number of categorized contributions.
Repos: Distinct repositories touched within the leading category alone — not the site-wide repo count at the top of the page.; How it's calculated

Counts unique repositories among just that category's contributions.
Orgs: Distinct organizations touched within the leading category alone — not the site-wide count.; How it's calculated

Counts unique organizations (the owner in owner/repo) among just that category's contributions.

Active workbench

Terms used on the Active Workbench page — the live board of maintainer and contribution work in progress.

Board & lanes: A live board of work in progress, organized by what happens next.
Workbench status & ball tracking: A badge on each row showing whose turn it is, whether it's a draft, and how long it's been waiting.

Quarterly reports

How contributions are grouped into three-month periods, making them easier to find and read.

Reports index: The main list of the portfolio. It organizes all work into separate pages grouped by year and three-month periods (quarters).

Quarterly report metrics

Terms used inside a single report, covering the work done in that three-month period.

Quarter in brief: A plain-language summary at the top of each quarterly report: a sentence or two on what happened, which organizations were worked with, and a few highlighted contributions.; How it's calculated

Built from the same counts as the tables below — merged, reviewed, and co-authored pull requests, and issues — turned into a few sentences, a list of organizations worked with, and up to three highlighted contributions. The Markdown version of the report shows the same numbers as a Quarterly Statistics table instead, since Markdown can't do the same layout.
Quarterly statistics: A summary that shows the total work and the projects involved during a specific three-month period.; How it's calculated

Adds up every type of contribution and every different repo touched during that three-month period.
Top 3 repositories: The projects that received the most work and attention within each quarter.; How it's calculated

Sorts repos by how many contributions happened in them that quarter.
Merged PRs: A record of pull requests that got accepted and merged into other people's repos.; How it's calculated

Finds every pull request marked as merged, and works out the Review Period — the time from opening it to it being accepted.
Issues: A record of bugs, ideas, and problems reported on other people's repos.; How it's calculated

Collects every issue opened, whether or not it was assigned. Works out the Closing Period — the time from opening to closing.
Reviewed PRs: A record of formal reviews left on other people's pull requests.; How it's calculated

Works out the Review Period — from the pull request opening to the formal review being submitted — and tracks its current Status and Last Update.
Co-authored PRs: A record of pull requests where code was contributed alongside other developers.; How it's calculated

Finds commits credited to a co-author. The Commit Period is the time from the pull request opening to the first commit on it — showing when the collaboration started. Status and Last Update track where it stands now.
Collaborations: A record of comments left on issues or pull requests opened by other people.; How it's calculated

Tracks comments on pull requests and issues, up until one gets a formal review.

Quarter-level averages & status

Numbers and marks layered on top of the synced report format: quarter-wide averages in the "Quarter in brief" header, and the status badge shown on every row below it.

Average PR time to merge: How long a pull request typically sat open before landing, averaged across every merged PR in the quarter — one number for "am I getting faster at this."; How it's calculated

Averages that quarter's Review Period (the per-row time-to-merge figure under Merged PRs) across every merged pull request. Only shown when the quarter has at least one.
Average PR review response: How long it typically took to leave a first review after a pull request opened, averaged across the quarter.; How it's calculated

Averages that quarter's Review Period under Reviewed PRs — the time from a pull request opening to the first formal review left on it — across every reviewed PR. Only shown when the quarter has at least one.
Worked with: Every organization touched that quarter, across all five contribution categories, not just one.; How it's calculated

Groups every contribution in the quarter by the owner half of owner/repo, then lists each organization with how many contributions it received, most-active first.
Status badge: The colored tag on every row — Merged, Open, or Closed — a quick read on outcome that a bare date can't give.; How it's calculated

Merged PRs are always Merged. For every other row: Merged if it has a merge date, Closed if it has a close date or its state is closed, Open otherwise.

How to read the marks

The sections above define how a number is counted. This one is the other half of that vocabulary — the same marks appear next to activity everywhere on the site, and they always mean the same thing.

In hand — In progress right now.
Waiting — This side is done; someone else has it.
Finished — Shipped, merged, or closed.
Stalled — No movement for 30 days or more.
Automated — A bot opened it; batched rather than worked individually.
Written — An article, guide, or note, self-published.
Recognized — An award, feature, or invitation.
Continues — The rest of it is on another page here.
Elsewhere — Opens on a different website.