The GitHub Graph: Open-Source Collaboration Patterns and Neo4j
summary
Uses Neo4j and Cypher to model GitHub as a PR–issue graph, scraping 56 projects and ~90,000 issues/PRs, then manually labeling a final sample of 64 connected clusters and running automated queries to find 1,000+ matches of nine prototypical workflows. Finds recurring, actionable patterns like competing PRs (many PRs fixing one issue with one merged), duplicate issue hubs (many later duplicates tied to a central report), and diversion PRs (one PR closing many issues). Provides reusable Cypher, a Neo4j Python pipeline, and an interactive visual explorer for maintainers to reproduce and inspect results.
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chapters (13)
- 0:00Introduction to research
- 1:13GitHub collaboration basics
- 3:00Link types in GitHub
- 7:32Graph analysis with Neo4j
- 10:41Workflow type definitions
- 13:29Competing PR workflow
- 17:51Duplicate issue workflow
- 20:19Overdelivered PR workflow
- 22:04Workflow type frequency
- 23:29Developer validation insights
- 25:16Practical applications
- 26:40Automating analysis
- 27:22Q&A
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