# Star Support Probe: psf/requests

Runner version: `star_support_probe_runner_v0_1`
Contract version: `star_support_probe_contract_v0_1`

## Boundary

This report does not determine whether stars are artificial, purchased, automated, fraudulent, bot-driven, scam-related, or owner-intent related. It compares visible popularity to surrounding public evidence.

This probe can help maintainers support their public popularity signal by showing surrounding evidence, adoption indicators, and gaps worth documenting.

## Probe Question

Does this repository's visible GitHub popularity signal appear supported by surrounding public evidence?

## Target Surface

- Repo/project: `psf/requests`
- Product/surface focus: visible GitHub popularity/support signal for one public repo
- Purpose: contextualize whether public popularity is supported by surrounding public evidence
- Decision question: does the visible star signal line up with adjacent public activity and adoption signals?
- Included evidence surface: stars, forks, subscribers/watchers, contributors, recent commits, releases, issue/PR activity
- Excluded surfaces: private maintainer intent, fraud determination, bot detection, code execution, full dependency review
- Invariant/claim tested: popularity claims should be framed as support-context comparisons, not intent or fraud conclusions

## Popularity Signal Summary

- Status: `supported`
- Score: `100/100`
- No adverse conclusion made: `True`

## Evidence Checked

- Stars: `53991`
- Forks: `9919`
- Actual subscribers/watchers: `1294`
- Contributors: `100`
- Recent commits: `100`
- Releases: `19`
- Issue/PR activity: `100`

GitHub REST maps `watchers_count` to star count in repository responses; this report uses `subscribers_count` for actual watcher/subscriber context.

## Score Drivers

- Visible star signal is high enough to deserve context: 53991 stars.
- Fork count supports visible reuse or investigation interest.
- Contributor count supports a broader participation signal.
- Recent commit activity supports current maintenance attention.
- Release history supports a maintained public project surface.
- Issue/PR activity supports public discussion or maintenance traffic.

## Supporting Evidence

- Fork signal is present relative to stars: 9919 forks.
- Contributor activity is visible: 100 contributors sampled/countable.
- Recent commit activity is visible: 100 commits in the bounded sample/window.
- Release history is visible: 19 releases sampled/countable.
- Issue/PR activity is visible: 100 bounded items/signals.
- Actual subscriber/watcher count is present: 1294 subscribers.

## Signal Context (beyond the API numbers)

The raw numbers above are available to anyone who visits the GitHub page. The value of this probe is the context around them:

- **Fork-to-star ratio (18.4%):** Healthy for a mature library. A very low ratio might indicate stars without active usage; a very high ratio might indicate a fork-heavy project with competing forks. Requests sits in the normal range for a widely-adopted utility library.
- **Subscriber-to-star ratio (2.4%):** Subscribers (people who opted into notifications) are a stronger engagement signal than stars. 1,294 subscribers on a 54k-star repo indicates genuine ongoing interest beyond one-click starring.
- **Contributor breadth:** 100+ contributors sampled suggests the project is not dependent on a single maintainer for all code contributions. This reduces bus-factor risk.
- **Release cadence:** 19 releases in the sampled window indicates active maintenance, not just accumulated stars on a dormant project.

## Evidence Gaps

- None recorded.

A gap is context only. Low forks, low issues, few contributors, or a new repo are not adverse conclusions by themselves.

## Data Limitations

- GitHub `watchers_count` is not treated as independent watcher evidence because GitHub REST maps it to star count. This report uses `subscribers_count` for actual opt-in engagement.
- This report does not determine whether stars are artificial, purchased, automated, fraudulent, bot-driven, scam-related, or owner-intent related. It compares visible popularity to surrounding public evidence.
- Contributor and commit counts are bounded samples, not exhaustive totals.

## Safe Next Step

Treat stars as one supported popularity signal, while still checking fit, security, and maintenance needs separately. For `psf/requests` specifically, the surrounding evidence strongly supports the popularity signal — no further star-support investigation is needed. The next useful probe for this dependency would be a Stability-Signal check on maintenance direction and Python version support.

## What This Report Does NOT Do

- It does not determine star origin or user intent.
- It does not perform platform enforcement.
- It does not replace due diligence, security review, or dependency review.
- It does not inspect private repositories.

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## Legal Disclaimer

This report is provided for informational purposes only. It is not legal advice, a security audit, a penetration test, a production certification, or a guarantee of any kind. FoldEngine reports are bounded diagnostics based on visible public evidence at the time of the probe. They do not replace professional legal, security, or engineering review. Use of this report is subject to the FoldEngine Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

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