GitHub Trending: Last week — System Design Primer, Awesome Mac, Authentik, Planka, OctoBot
The weekly list favors durable reference projects and self-hosted control: architecture study notes, a Mac software index, identity glue, Kanban boards, and a trading bot.
In last week's GitHub Trending: System Design Primer (architecture study guide), Awesome Mac (curated macOS software), Authentik (identity platform), Planka (self-hosted Kanban), and OctoBot (automated trading bot).
The unexpected common thread is not a new framework but accumulated trust: old repositories still solve recurring work, even when their current community chatter is sparse.
The roster
| Repo | What it does | Weekly growth |
|---|---|---|
| donnemartin/system-design-primer | Large-scale-system design study guide | +1,696 stars |
| jaywcjlove/awesome-mac | Curated macOS software index | +1,643 stars |
| goauthentik/authentik | Authentication and identity platform | +697 stars |
| plankanban/planka | Self-hosted Kanban project manager | +96 stars |
| Drakkar-Software/OctoBot | Open-source automated trading bot | +90 stars |
donnemartin/system-design-primer — study material that outlives a release cycle
System Design Primer is aimed at engineers learning or revising how large systems are put together, including interview preparation. Its large weekly gain is a useful counterpoint to the idea that Trending only rewards new code.
The discussion scan found historic HN threads rather than a fresh debate; their comments range from design-method suggestions to a reminder that even a high-traffic site can remain simple. That makes the repository’s role clearer: it is a reference shelf, not a release announcement.
goauthentik/authentik — identity remains a hands-on system
Authentik targets teams wiring authentication, authorization, proxies, and single sign-on into their own infrastructure. It is “glue” in the literal sense: valuable when it connects many systems without becoming the product users see.
Its active issue tracker includes detailed reports around two-factor authentication and forward-auth configuration. Those are not a broad popularity contest; they are the operational work that makes identity software consequential after installation.
The week’s rule is simple: mature open-source projects can lead a trend because the job they do keeps returning. Discovery lists, study guides, and self-hosted building blocks do not need a launch to earn another look.
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GitHub Trending: Today — Spotube, ReVanced, GOWA, lm-evaluation-harness, public-api-lists
Today's list is unusually consumer-facing: a desktop-and-mobile music client, an Android patch manager, and a WhatsApp API sit beside model evaluation and a public-API catalog.