fork-it

You don't have to start from scratch — search GitHub first.

简体中文

Core Philosophy

[!IMPORTANT] Every great project starts somewhere. Why start from zero when you can start from 80%?

Got an idea? Before you type a single line of code, search GitHub first. There's probably a project that already does a big chunk of what you want. Fork it. Now it's yours. Tear it apart, reshape it, inject your own ideas — no PRs, no waiting, no asking permission. That's the beauty of open source.

You're not "reinventing the wheel." You're standing on it to reach higher.

What is this?

fork-it is an AI Assistant Skill that helps you discover the best open-source starting points on GitHub — projects you can fork then customize into your own vision.

What It Does

| Step | Description | |------|-------------| | Search | Finds the most relevant open-source projects for your idea | | Analyze | Checks activity, community health, and how close the match is | | Fork & Go | Points you to the best fork-worthy candidates, no strings attached |

Quick Start

fork-it is a plain SKILL.md skill — a standard Markdown definition plus shared Node scripts. It works with any AI coding agent that loads skills from a skills/ directory, so a single package installs across the whole ecosystem.

Supported agents

| Agent | Skills directory | |-------|------------------| | Universal (AGENTS.md) | ~/.agents/skills/fork-it | | OpenAI Codex | ~/.codex/skills/fork-it | | Cursor | ~/.cursor/skills/fork-it | | Claude Code | ~/.claude/skills/fork-it | | OpenCode | ~/.opencode/skills/fork-it | | Trae | ~/.trae/skills/fork-it | | Pi | ~/.pi/skills/fork-it | | Qoder | ~/.qoder/skills/fork-it | | CodeBuddy | ~/.codebuddy/skills/fork-it |

Most agents also accept project-level skills at <your-project>/.<agent>/skills/fork-it.

Option A — One-line installer (recommended)

The fastest way — no clone needed:

# Run directly from npm
npx @gdwhisper/fork-it

# Or run straight from the GitHub repo
npx github:GDWhisper/fork-it

By default the installer is interactive: it detects the agent config directories on your machine, shows them in a menu with their install status, and asks which ones to install into. Nothing is installed without your confirmation. Flags for non-interactive use:

npx @gdwhisper/fork-it                 # interactive: choose which agents to install
npx @gdwhisper/fork-it --all           # install into ALL known agent dirs (create if missing)
npx @gdwhisper/fork-it --agents a,b    # install into the named agents only (e.g. agents,claude)
npx @gdwhisper/fork-it --yes           # install into detected agents only, no prompt
npx @gdwhisper/fork-it --project       # install into the current project instead of your home dir
npx @gdwhisper/fork-it --list          # just show which agents were detected
npx @gdwhisper/fork-it --dry-run       # show what would be installed, change nothing

Prefer a local clone? The repo ships a cross-platform installer (install.mjs) with thin install.sh / install.ps1 wrappers:

# from a clone
./install.sh                 # or:  node install.mjs
./install.sh --all           # or:  node install.mjs --all
./install.sh --agents a,b    # or:  node install.mjs --agents a,b
./install.sh --project       # or:  node install.mjs --project
./install.sh --list          # or:  node install.mjs --list

Option B — Manual install

Download the latest package from Release, extract it, and copy the fork-it/ folder into any agent's skills/ directory from the table above.

| File | |------| | fork-it.skill |

.skill files are plain zip archives — each contains a ready-to-use fork-it/ folder (SKILL.md + scripts/).

Also on ClawHub: the package ships _meta.json, so it can be published/installed via the ClawHub registry too (see the project-level clawhub-publish skill at .agents/skills/clawhub-publish/).

Configure GitHub Token (Recommended)

[!TIP] A personal access token gives you 5,000 requests/hour instead of 60:

export GITHUB_TOKEN="ghp_your_token_here"

| Rate Limit | Requests/hour | |------------|---------------| | Unauthenticated | 60 | | Authenticated | 5,000 |

Usage

How to Trigger

Just describe your idea to your AI agent. fork-it picks up on it naturally:

• "I want to build a..." / 「我想做一个…」
• "I'm thinking of making..." / 「我在考虑开发…」
• "Has anyone built something like..." / 「有没有人做过类似的…」
• Or invoke directly: /fork-it

Example

Input:

I want to build a Windows cache auto-cleanup tool

Output:

Here are some solid starting points you can fork and make your own:

Results

| Project | Stars | Language | What It Gives You |
|---------|-------|----------|-------------------|
| BleachBit | 4.7k | Python | Full-featured cross-platform cleaner, fork it and add your own rules |
| Winapp2 | 905 | VB.NET | Rich cleaning rules database, fork it as your rule engine |
| WindowsCleanerUtility | 105 | Batch | Minimal script, fork it if you want a lightweight starting point |

BleachBit gives you the most complete foundation. Fork it, strip what you
don't need, and build your own cleaner on top.

How It Works

When fork-it Chimes In

When you're forming a new project idea — not when you're fixing bugs, learning, or asking about specific functions.

Good candidates for fork-it:

• "I want to build a chat app..."
• "I want to create a markdown editor..."
• "I want to make a cron job scheduler..."

fork-it stays quiet when:

• You're debugging existing code
• You're learning how something works
• You're asking about a specific algorithm or regex
• You're modifying an existing project

Decision Guide

| Match | Path | What This Means | |-------|------|-----------------| | Great | Fork & Customize | The project does most of what you need. Fork it, tweak it, ship it. | | Partial | Fork & Extend | Core is solid but missing your feature. Fork it and add your piece. | | Reference | Learn, Then Build | Different enough that forking isn't the shortcut. Study the approach. | | None | Build Fresh | You're doing something new. Go build it — and consider open-sourcing it! |

Output Format

Scripts return a unified JSON structure:

{
  "status": "ok",
  "query": "pomodoro timer",
  "total_count": 1234,
  "returned_count": 10,
  "items": [
    {
      "rank": 1,
      "full_name": "user/repo",
      "description": "A pomodoro timer app",
      "url": "https://github.com/user/repo",
      "stars": 12300,
      "forks": 1200,
      "language": "TypeScript",
      "pushed_days_ago": 3,
      "created_at": "2024-01-01",
      "topics": ["productivity", "timer"],
      "license": "MIT"
    }
  ]
}

AI Display Rules (always reply in the user's language — the script output is language-neutral):

| Field | Rule | |-------|------| | pushed_days_ago: 3 | AI converts to "3 days ago" / "3天前" | | stars: 12300 | AI formats as "12.3k" / "1.23万" | | status: "error" | AI generates a friendly error message from code and message | | repo data | AI translates description and commentary into the user's language |

Tech Stack

| Component | Technology | |-----------|------------| | Language | JavaScript (ES Modules) | | API | GitHub Search API v3, GitHub REST API | | Runtime | Node.js |

Why fork-it?

| Benefit | Description | |---------|-------------| | Jump Start | Start from a working codebase instead of a blank file | | Full Creative Control | Fork it and it's yours — no PRs, no waiting, no gatekeepers | | Learn by Reading | Even if you don't fork, studying real projects teaches you fast | | Ship Faster | Spend time on YOUR ideas, not on boilerplate someone already wrote |

Contributing

We welcome contributions of all kinds:

| Area | Description | |------|-------------| | Bug fixes | Fix issues and improve stability | | New features | Add new capabilities | | Documentation | Improve docs and examples | | Translation | Enhance bilingual support |

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details

Made with love by GDWhisper

If fork-it helps you launch faster, give us a star!