GitHub launches Topics to help users find repositories based on common themes

GitHub has launched a new feature to help users find similar project repositories based around common subject areas.

The aptly named Topics search tool is powered by labels that draw connections between GitHub repositories, letting users search by technology, project type, language, community, and other subjects as defined by the repository admin. It’s a useful feature for those seeking to explore subjects areas that they’re interested in and can contribute to.

Though topics can be applied to both public and private repositories, private repositories will only display if a user has permission to access them.

Above: GitHub Topics

The code-hosting platform, which claims millions of users globally and has raised around $350 million in VC funding, also says that it uses machine learning to analyze the content of public repositories in order to automatically suggest topics, though these can be accepted or rejected by the admins. Topic suggestions aren’t made for private repositories.

“Topics will continue to grow as we learn more from you and better understand GitHub’s role in project discovery,” explained Shay Frendt, a senior engineer at GitHub, in a blog post.

Today’s launch comes four months after GitHub launched a new proprietary project-management tool for tracking pull requests, issues, and notes for repositories. This came a day after GitLab, a Y Combinator-backed GitHub competitor, raised a $20 million funding round.