How the verdicts work
step 1
Sample 200 stargazers
We pull a representative sample of recent stargazers for each repo — enough for ±5% confidence at 95% on the suspicious-account ratio.
step 2
Score every account
Each sampled stargazer is scored on account age, followers, public repos, and avatar — the StarGuard fingerprint of throwaway accounts. Deleted accounts count the heaviest.
step 3
Cross-validate bursts
Spikes in star count are checked against fork activity in the same window. Real spikes correlate with forks; bought spikes don't. Per-burst user analysis can upgrade or downgrade the verdict.