How to indicate a project's status on GitHub?

Question

What the most accepted/idiomatic way to indicate a project's status on GitHub?I often come across incomplete, unmaintained, or derelict projects on GitHub that would benefit from some kind of badge or status indicator. But, it seems rude to put up a PR with this if there's no established convention.Do folks have thoughts on this? Is it a problem worth solving?Thanks in advance, and happy 2025 to you all!

not_your_vase · Accepted Answer

I read the last commit date as a status indicator - it's subjective, but it works fairly well.
Of course it doesn't always mean a lot... I have 40-something public repos, and I haven't touched like 30 in the past year, but I use most of them, and for some of them I would even give support on request. But if someone would open a PR, with adding a random project dead note in the readme, I wouldn't be particularly happy about it. (But I would have no problem if someone opened an issue asking a question, like a "welfare check")
But for projects that are used by more than 5 people, I think commit date's a reasonable indicator, and personally wouldn't try getting anything more.
Of course, there is also an official indicator, used sometimes: the archival of the repo, which makes it read-only.

JTyQZSnP3cQGa8B · Answer

IMHO it's unrelated to GitHub, and it's a fear created (in part) by its "social media" side. Stop thinking if it's rude, and open an issue or a PR to ask any question.

efortis · Answer

I'd say semver with a 0 major, e.g. 0.20.3

akerl_ · Answer

How do incomplete, unmaintained, or derelict projects benefit from a badge or status indicator?