# How the 1,000 most-starred open-source repositories are built (2026)

Published 2026-11-09 by GitDiagram. Source: https://gitdiagram.com/open-source-architecture-2026

> What 1,000 architecture diagrams of the most-starred GitHub repositories show: a third of projects started since 2025 draw an AI agent as a user, how often they ship a CLI, a web UI, a data store or a monorepo, by language. Method and dataset included.

## Findings

- **AI agents are now drawn as users.** 33.3% of the repositories created in 2025 or later show an AI agent or coding assistant as one of the outside actors that use the software, next to people. Among repositories created before 2020 it is 2%.
- **LLMs moved into the architecture.** A component for an LLM or AI model provider appears in 41.8% of repositories created 2023 to 2024 and 2.4% of those created before 2020. MCP shows up in 31.8% of the 2025-or-later repositories.
- **The command line beats the browser.** 29.6% of all diagrams include a command-line interface and 14.3% a web interface. In Rust it is 56.2% CLI, in Go 47.7%.
- **Half keep state, few use queues.** 52.5% draw a data store (a database, cache, file or object storage). Only 7.4% draw a queue or event bus.
- **Monorepos are a TypeScript and Rust habit.** 17.1% of diagrams link files in workspace folders (packages/, apps/, crates/, libs/, services/). For TypeScript it is 54.3%, for Rust 43.8%, for Python 6.4% and for Go 5.8%, where 54.7% use the cmd/ and internal/ layout instead.
- **Plugin systems are common.** 22.9% name a plugin or extension system, 34.4% of JavaScript repositories.

## By year the repository was created

| Created | Repositories | LLM component | MCP | AI agent as a user |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| before 2020 | 495 | 2.4% | 3% | 2% |
| 2020 to 2022 | 149 | 12.1% | 8.7% | 2% |
| 2023 to 2024 | 158 | 41.8% | 21.5% | 3.2% |
| 2025 or later | 198 | 24.2% | 31.8% | 33.3% |

## By primary language

| Language | Repositories | CLI | Web UI | Plugins | Data store | Workspace folders | LLM |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| Python | 234 | 34.2% | 17.1% | 13.2% | 57.3% | 6.4% | 29.5% |
| TypeScript | 173 | 30.1% | 20.8% | 27.7% | 61.3% | 54.3% | 20.8% |
| JavaScript | 90 | 18.9% | 12.2% | 34.4% | 37.8% | 12.2% | 4.4% |
| Go | 86 | 47.7% | 17.4% | 33.7% | 75.6% | 5.8% | 14% |
| Rust | 73 | 56.2% | 17.8% | 26% | 58.9% | 43.8% | 8.2% |
| C++ | 55 | 20% | 5.5% | 25.5% | 49.1% | 5.5% | 5.5% |
| Java | 47 | 17% | 10.6% | 27.7% | 42.6% | 4.3% | 8.5% |

## The ten most-starred repositories in the sample

- [codecrafters-io/build-your-own-x](https://gitdiagram.com/codecrafters-io/build-your-own-x) (561,192 stars, Markdown): 34 components in 5 groups: Guide catalog, Systems topics, Software topics, Graphics topics, AI topics.
- [sindresorhus/awesome](https://gitdiagram.com/sindresorhus/awesome) (534,108 stars, no primary language): 7 components in 3 groups: Resource catalog, Contributor guidance, List definition.
- [public-apis/public-apis](https://gitdiagram.com/public-apis/public-apis) (497,404 stars, Python): 11 components in 2 groups: API catalog, Catalog validation.
- [freeCodeCamp/freeCodeCamp](https://gitdiagram.com/freecodecamp/freecodecamp) (458,787 stars, TypeScript): 22 components in 4 groups: Learning experience, Curriculum content, Platform services, API and persistence.
- [morluto/rea](https://gitdiagram.com/morluto/rea) (445,142 stars, TypeScript): 23 components in 4 groups: Interfaces and orchestration, Analysis domains, Analysis providers, Runtime and evidence.
- [EbookFoundation/free-programming-books](https://gitdiagram.com/ebookfoundation/free-programming-books) (401,341 stars, Python): 10 components in 4 groups: Catalog entry points, Learning resources, Supplementary resources, Reader access.
- [openclaw/openclaw](https://gitdiagram.com/openclaw/openclaw) (394,231 stars, TypeScript): 24 components in 5 groups: User clients, Gateway and sessions, Agent runtime, Channels and plugins, Configuration and memory.
- [donnemartin/system-design-primer](https://gitdiagram.com/donnemartin/system-design-primer) (377,390 stars, Python): 18 components in 4 groups: Learning resources, Interview practice, System design examples, Object-oriented examples.
- [nilbuild/developer-roadmap](https://gitdiagram.com/nilbuild/developer-roadmap) (371,595 stars, TypeScript): 15 components in 3 groups: Learning Content, Content Synchronization, Sync Support.
- [jwasham/coding-interview-university](https://gitdiagram.com/jwasham/coding-interview-university) (364,128 stars, no primary language): 17 components in 5 groups: Canonical guide, Localization, Reference assets, Automation, External learning.

## Method

GitDiagram stores an architecture diagram for each public repository someone generates (233,477 on 2026-11-09). We took the 1,600 with the most stars, kept those whose diagram has a component graph, dropped forks and repositories stored under an old name, and kept the 1,000 most-starred by GitHub's count on 2026-11-09. Primary language and creation year come from the GitHub API. A trait counts when a regular expression matches a component or group name:

- Has an LLM or AI-model component: `/\b(llms?|language models?|model providers?|ai providers?|llm providers?|openai|anthropic|ollama|gemini|inference (api|providers?|backends?))\b/`
- Speaks MCP: `/\bmcp\b|model context protocol/`
- Has a command-line interface: `/\bcli\b|command[- ]line|\bterminal (ui|interface|app)\b|\btui\b/`
- Has a web interface: `/\bweb (ui|app|application|interface|client|frontend|dashboard|console)\b|\bfrontend\b|\bdashboard\b/`
- Has a desktop app: `/\bdesktop\b|\belectron\b|\btauri\b/`
- Has a plugin or extension system: `/\bplugins?\b|\bextensions?\b|\badd-?ons?\b/`
- AI agent as a user: an outside actor (circle) matching `/\bagents?\b|\bmcp clients?\b|\bassistants?\b|\bcopilot\b|\bclaude code\b|\bcodex\b/`
- Data store: a component drawn as a database. Queue: a component drawn as a queue.
- Workspace folders: a component linked to a file under packages/, apps/, crates/, libs/ or services/.

## Limits

- The sample is the most-starred repositories that someone has diagrammed on GitDiagram, not every top repository on GitHub. It starts at 561,192 stars and ends at 25,275.
- Diagrams are written by an AI model from the file tree, the README and up to 12 source files, then checked against the real tree. They show the main parts, not every file, and can miss or misname a part.
- Diagram size is set by GitDiagram, not by the repository: a diagram has at most 34 components, so the median of 21 says more about the generator than about the code.
- Traits are found by matching words in component and group names (the rules are below and in the dataset). A component named differently is missed; a name that matches by accident is counted.
- Lists, books and courses are included, because they are among the most-starred repositories (56 have no primary language).
- Diagrams were made between 2026-03-28 and 2026-11-09; a repository may have changed since its diagram was made.

## Data

- CSV: https://gitdiagram.com/reports/open-source-architecture-2026.csv
- JSON: https://gitdiagram.com/reports/open-source-architecture-2026.json
- Scripts: https://github.com/ahmedkhaleel2004/gitdiagram/tree/main/scripts/architecture-report

License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as: GitDiagram, "How the 1,000 most-starred open-source repositories are built (2026)", 2026-11-09, https://gitdiagram.com/open-source-architecture-2026