Public record
Software health reportschema 0.30.0 · metrics 2.10.0 · 2026-08-03 18:00 UTC

nicholas-fedor / watchtower

Automate Docker container image updates

GoApache-2.0★ 4,190 stars⑂ 69 forkssince Jan 2025View on GitHub ↗
KindCommand-line toolhow this is determined

nicholas-fedor/watchtower holds a health index of 96 out of 100, placing it in the Exceptional band. It scores highest on Vitality (99/100) and lowest on AI Readiness (61/100). It was last updated today. 2 contributors account for most of its recent work.

96
overall / 100
Exceptional

Software health index

Metrics are grouped into weighted categories on one standardized 1–100 scale. Overall starts as their weighted mean, calibrated against the distribution of the public record so bands carry percentile meaning; when public evidence triggers the High-Risk Jurisdiction Policy, the rating is adjusted and receives an At Risk ceiling of 34.

96
Exceptional93-100The record's top tier (≈ top 5%); essentially all checked criteria met
Excellent80-92Strong across the board; minor gaps
Good65-79Healthy; gaps are limited and manageable
Moderate50-64Acceptable with notable gaps; review recommended
Weak35-49Material weaknesses across several areas
At Risk20-34Significant weaknesses; adoption warrants caution
Critical1-19Severe problems (abandoned, single-maintainer, no hygiene)
VitalityCommunity &AdoptionSustainability &GovernanceEngineeringQualitySecurityAI Readiness

Score profile

Each axis is a category. The shape matters more than the average — a healthy subject fills the whole shape, while a spike-and-crater profile means strength in one dimension is masking risk in another.

The weighted overall 83 is calibrated to 96 on the published index scale (record calibration 2026-08-02).

Ownership

Nick FedorPersonal account
40 followers38 public repossince Sep 2020

This repository is owned by a personal account. A single-owner project carries more continuity risk than an organization-backed one.

Package ecosystems

RegistryPackageVersionDownloads / moVersionsLast publish
Gogithub.com/nicholas-fedor/watchtowerv1.20.2-605 days ago

Metrics by category

Vitality

Is the project alive — is code being written and are releases shipping?

99Exceptional · 21% of overall

Development activity

100Exceptional
How it's scored
36/36Push recency — last push 0 days ago
36/36Commit cadence — 52/52 weeks with commits
18/18Commit volume — 1,351 commits in the last year
10/10OpenSSF Scorecard: Maintained — 30 commit(s) and 16 issue activity found in the last 90 days -- score normalized to 10
Inputs used
commits_last_year1,351
human_commit_share0.15
days_since_last_push0
active_weeks_last_year52

Release discipline

98Exceptional
How it's scored
27/27Ships releases — 52 releases published
36/36Release recency — latest release 5 days ago
27/27Release cadence — a release every ~13.2 days
8/10OpenSSF Scorecard: Signed-Releases — 5 out of the last 5 releases have a total of 5 signed artifacts.
Inputs used
releases_count52
latest_release_tagv1.20.2
releases_from_tagsno
days_since_latest_release5
mean_days_between_releases13.2

Community & Adoption

Does the project have users, downloads, attention, and a welcoming setup for contributors?

82Excellent · 17% of overall
How it's scored
58.8/60Stars — 4,190 stars
15.3/25Forks — 69 forks
6.4/15Watchers — 15 watchers
Inputs used
forks69
stars4,190
watchers15
growth_stateunverified
growth_factor_pct100
growth_unverified_reasonno_history

Community health

85Excellent
How it's scored
22.5/22.5README
22.5/22.5License — recognized license (Apache-2.0)
18/18CONTRIBUTING guide
13.5/13.5Code of conduct
0/7.2Issue template
0/6.3PR template
Inputs used
has_readmeyes
has_licenseyes
readme_badges7
has_contributingyes
has_issue_templateno
has_code_of_conductyes
readme_badge_servicesapp.codacy.com, circleci.com, codecov.io, shields.io
has_pull_request_templateno

Sustainability & Governance

Will the project survive its people — bus factor, responsiveness, who backs it, and package upkeep?

72Good · 23% of overall
How it's scored
25.2/54Bus factor — 2 contributor(s) cover half of all commits
11.4/22.5Commit distribution — top contributor authored 49% of commits
13.5/13.5Contributor breadth — 95 contributors
10/10OpenSSF Scorecard: Contributors — project has 11 contributing companies or organizations
Inputs used
bus_factor2
contributors_sampled95
top_contributor_share0.493
How it's scored
39.4/42Issue resolution — 94% of issues closed
29.4/30PR acceptance — 1,787/1,822 decided PRs merged
0/13Newcomer PR acceptance — no first-time contributor's PR decided in 30d
0/15OpenSSF Scorecard: Code-Review — Found 0/16 approved changesets -- score normalized to 0
Inputs used
merged_prs1,787
open_issues12
closed_issues181
prs_merged_7d6
prs_decided_7d6
prs_merged_30d9
prs_decided_30d9
issue_closed_ratio0.938
closed_unmerged_prs35
first_time_authors_30d0
first_time_prs_merged_30d0
first_time_prs_decided_30d0
Excluded from scoring (no data or not applicable): Newcomer PR acceptance. Remaining weights renormalized.
How it's scored
10/30Ownership backing — personal (user) account
0/20Verified domain — not applicable to user accounts
11.6/25Owner reach — 40 followers of nicholas-fedor
23.3/25Track record — 38 public repos, account ~5 yr old
Inputs used
followers40
owner_typeUser
is_verified
owner_loginnicholas-fedor
public_repos38
account_age_days2,145
Excluded from scoring (no data or not applicable): Verified domain. Remaining weights renormalized.

Package maintenance

100Exceptional
How it's scored
25/25Published & resolvable — 1 package(s) on go
35/35Publish recency — latest publish 5 days ago
20/20Version history — 60 published versions
20/20Not deprecated — active, not deprecated or yanked
Inputs used
packagesgithub.com/nicholas-fedor/watchtower
ecosystemsgo
any_deprecatedno
min_days_since_publish5

Engineering Quality

Are baseline engineering and documentation practices in place?

80Excellent · 19% of overall
How it's scored
24/24CI workflows — 12 workflow(s)
24/24Tests present
0/16Linter config
0/9.6Pre-commit hooks
6.4/6.4.editorconfig
20/20OpenSSF Scorecard: CI-Tests — 30 out of 30 merged PRs checked by a CI test -- score normalized to 10
Inputs used
has_ciyes
has_testsyes
has_editorconfigyes
has_linter_configno
has_precommit_configno

Documentation

90Excellent
How it's scored
30/30README
25/25Documentation directory
15/15Documentation / homepage site — http://watchtower.nickfedor.com/
10/10Repository description
10/10Topics — 4 topics
0/10Wiki
Inputs used
topicscommunity-project, docker, go, golang
has_wikino
homepagehttp://watchtower.nickfedor.com/
docs_sitehttp://watchtower.nickfedor.com/
has_readmeyes
has_docs_diryes
has_descriptionyes

Security

Are visible security and supply-chain practices strong, without unresolved high-risk jurisdiction exposure?

86Excellent · 16% of overall

Security posture

82Excellent
How it's scored
7.5/7.5Binary-Artifacts — no binaries found in the repo
2.2/7.5Branch-Protection — branch protection is not maximal on development and all release branches
2.5/2.5CI-Tests — 30 out of 30 merged PRs checked by a CI test -- score normalized to 10
0/2.5CII-Best-Practices — no effort to earn an OpenSSF best practices badge detected
0/7.5Code-Review — Found 0/16 approved changesets -- score normalized to 0
2.5/2.5Contributors — project has 11 contributing companies or organizations
10/10Dangerous-Workflow — no dangerous workflow patterns detected
7.5/7.5Dependency-Update-Tool — update tool detected
5/5Fuzzing — project is fuzzed
2.5/2.5License — license file detected
7.5/7.5Maintained — 30 commit(s) and 16 issue activity found in the last 90 days -- score normalized to 10
0/5Packaging — no data
4/5Pinned-Dependencies — dependency not pinned by hash detected -- score normalized to 8
5/5SAST — SAST tool is run on all commits
5/5Security-Policy — security policy file detected
6/7.5Signed-Releases — 5 out of the last 5 releases have a total of 5 signed artifacts.
7.5/7.5Token-Permissions — GitHub workflow tokens follow principle of least privilege
6.8/7.5Vulnerabilities — 1 existing vulnerabilities detected
Inputs used
sourceopenssf_scorecard
checks_evaluated17
scorecard_versionv5.5.0
checks_inconclusive1
scorecard_aggregate8.2
Excluded from scoring (no data or not applicable): Packaging. Remaining weights renormalized.

Dependency advisories

100Exceptional
How it's scored
35/35Direct dependencies free of known advisories — no direct dependency carries a known advisory
0/25Indirect dependencies free of known advisories — transitive set not separable from development and test dependencies in this scope
0/40No advisories left outstanding — no advisory carries a publication date
Inputs used
sourceosv
advisories1
affected_packages1
assessed_packages92
unassessed_packages6
affected_by_severityunknown 1
direct_affected_packages0
Excluded from scoring (no data or not applicable): Indirect dependencies free of known advisories, No advisories left outstanding. Remaining weights renormalized. Matched 92 resolved dependencies against OSV. 6 could not be assessed — no resolved version, an unsupported ecosystem, or beyond the reported package list. This repository publishes no package the index resolves, so the repository dependency graph was assessed instead. That graph mixes development and test pins with shipped dependencies, so only the declared runtime dependencies are scored; transitive findings are reported as context and excluded from the score. Reachability is not analyzed.

AI Readiness

How well is the repo equipped to be developed and maintained with AI coding agents? Carries a deliberately small weight (4%): agent tooling is a real maintenance signal, but a repository with none can still reach 100/100.

61Moderate · 4% of overall
How it's scored
0/45Agent instructions — no CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md / editor rules
0/15Machine-readable docs (llms.txt)
0/40Legible commit history — no data
Inputs used
has_llms_txtno
llms_txt_url
legible_history_share
agent_instruction_files
agent_instruction_max_bytes
Excluded from scoring (no data or not applicable): Legible commit history. Remaining weights renormalized.
How it's scored
18/18One-command bootstrap — Makefile
22/22Automated tests
0/11Lint / format config
11/11Static type checking — Go (statically typed)
10/10Reproducible environment — devcontainer, Dockerfile, lockfile
0/10Demonstrated agent practice — no agent-authored commits among the last 100
8/8Automated maintenance — 43 of the last 100 commits are automated dependency updates
8/10OpenSSF Scorecard: Pinned-Dependencies — dependency not pinned by hash detected -- score normalized to 8
Inputs used
has_nixno
has_testsyes
lockfilesgo.sum
has_dockerfileyes
typed_languageyes
bootstrap_filesMakefile
has_devcontaineryes
has_linter_configno
typecheck_configs
agent_commit_share0
toolchain_manifestsexamples/http-api/events/go.mod, go.mod
dependency_bot_commit_share0.43
How it's scored
45/45Type-checkable code — Go (statically typed)
53.7/55Manageable file sizes — 8/339 source files over 60KB
Inputs used
primary_languageGo
largest_source_bytes98,903
source_files_sampled339
oversized_source_files8
How it's scored
40/40API schema (OpenAPI/GraphQL/proto) — internal/api/swagger/swagger.json, internal/api/swagger/swagger.yaml
0/20MCP server — not applicable to this kind of software
40/40Runnable examples — examples
Inputs used
example_dirsexamples
has_mcp_signalno
api_schema_filesinternal/api/swagger/swagger.json, internal/api/swagger/swagger.yaml
interfaces_expected_of
Excluded from scoring (no data or not applicable): MCP server. Remaining weights renormalized.

Key facts

4,190GitHub stars
95contributors
1,351commits, last 12 months
0days since last push
52releases
2bus factor
12open issues
Gopackage ecosystems

Data collection warnings

  • Star history unavailable: GitHub GraphQL error: Resource not accessible by personal access token

More detail

Star and fork history 0 ★ / 69 ⇿
0Stars
69Forks
42Releases

When each star and fork was added, collected from GitHub and bucketed by day. Cumulative growth sits directly above the daily additions it is made of, so the two read against each other: steady organic accretion looks nothing like an abrupt, short-lived burst. Where that difference is measurable, it is reported as growth authenticity.

01325385063756942025-032025-112026-08
Major 0Minor 12Patch 30

Each point covers 2 days.

OpenSSF Scorecard 8.2 / 10
8.2aggregate

Independent, tool-agnostic security assessment from the open-source OpenSSF Scorecard. Each check rewards a security practice, not a specific vendor's tool. Checks Scorecard could not determine are marked n/a and excluded from the security score (never counted as zero).Scorecard v5.5.0 · 2026-08-03 17:59 UTC

10Binary-Artifactsno binaries found in the repo
3Branch-Protectionbranch protection is not maximal on development and all release branches
10CI-Tests30 out of 30 merged PRs checked by a CI test -- score normalized to 10
0CII-Best-Practicesno effort to earn an OpenSSF best practices badge detected
0Code-ReviewFound 0/16 approved changesets -- score normalized to 0
10Contributorsproject has 11 contributing companies or organizations
10Dangerous-Workflowno dangerous workflow patterns detected
10Dependency-Update-Toolupdate tool detected
10Fuzzingproject is fuzzed
10Licenselicense file detected
10Maintained30 commit(s) and 16 issue activity found in the last 90 days -- score normalized to 10
n/aPackagingpackaging workflow not detected
8Pinned-Dependenciesdependency not pinned by hash detected -- score normalized to 8
10SASTSAST tool is run on all commits
10Security-Policysecurity policy file detected
8Signed-Releases5 out of the last 5 releases have a total of 5 signed artifacts.
10Token-PermissionsGitHub workflow tokens follow principle of least privilege
9Vulnerabilities1 existing vulnerabilities detected
Direct dependencies 27
RegistryPackageVersion constraintManifest
Gogithub.com/containerd/errdefsv1.0.0go.mod
Gogithub.com/distribution/referencev0.6.0go.mod
Gogithub.com/docker/cliv29.7.1+incompatiblego.mod
Gogithub.com/gofiber/contrib/v3/swaggov1.0.9go.mod
Gogithub.com/gofiber/fiber/v3v3.4.0go.mod
Gogithub.com/maypok86/otter/v2v2.3.0go.mod
Gogithub.com/moby/docker-image-specv1.3.1go.mod
Gogithub.com/moby/moby/apiv1.55.0go.mod
Gogithub.com/moby/moby/clientv0.5.1go.mod
Gogithub.com/nicholas-fedor/shoutrrrv0.16.3go.mod
Gogithub.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2v2.32.0go.mod
Gogithub.com/onsi/gomegav1.42.1go.mod
Gogithub.com/opencontainers/go-digestv1.0.0go.mod
Gogithub.com/opencontainers/image-specv1.1.1go.mod
Gogithub.com/prometheus/client_golangv1.24.1go.mod
Gogithub.com/prometheus/client_modelv0.6.2go.mod
Gogithub.com/robfig/cron/v3v3.0.1go.mod
Gogithub.com/sirupsen/logrusv1.9.4go.mod
Gogithub.com/spf13/aferov1.15.0go.mod
Gogithub.com/spf13/cobrav1.10.2go.mod
Gogithub.com/spf13/pflagv1.0.10go.mod
Gogithub.com/spf13/viperv1.21.0go.mod
Gogithub.com/stretchr/testifyv1.11.1go.mod
Gogithub.com/swaggo/swagv1.16.6go.mod
Gogithub.com/valyala/fasthttpv1.73.0go.mod
Gogolang.org/x/syncv0.22.0go.mod
Gogolang.org/x/textv0.40.0go.mod
All dependencies 98

Full resolved dependency set from the GitHub dependency graph: 27 direct and 71 indirect (transitive) packages. The transitive closure is complete when the repository commits a lockfile.

RegistryPackageVersionRelation
Gogithub.com/containerd/errdefsv1.0.0direct
Gogithub.com/distribution/referencev0.6.0direct
Gogithub.com/docker/cliv29.7.1+incompatibledirect
Gogithub.com/gofiber/contrib/v3/swaggov1.0.9direct
Gogithub.com/gofiber/fiber/v3v3.4.0direct
Gogithub.com/maypok86/otter/v2v2.3.0direct
Gogithub.com/moby/docker-image-specv1.3.1direct
Gogithub.com/moby/moby/apiv1.55.0direct
Gogithub.com/moby/moby/clientv0.5.1direct
Gogithub.com/nicholas-fedor/shoutrrrv0.16.3direct
Gogithub.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2v2.32.0direct
Gogithub.com/onsi/gomegav1.42.1direct
Gogithub.com/opencontainers/go-digestv1.0.0direct
Gogithub.com/opencontainers/image-specv1.1.1direct
Gogithub.com/prometheus/client_golangv1.24.1direct
Gogithub.com/prometheus/client_modelv0.6.2direct
Gogithub.com/robfig/cron/v3v3.0.1direct
Gogithub.com/sirupsen/logrusv1.9.4direct
Gogithub.com/spf13/aferov1.15.0direct
Gogithub.com/spf13/cobrav1.10.2direct
Gogithub.com/spf13/pflagv1.0.10direct
Gogithub.com/spf13/viperv1.21.0direct
Gogithub.com/stretchr/testifyv1.11.1direct
Gogithub.com/swaggo/swagv1.16.6direct
Gogithub.com/valyala/fasthttpv1.73.0direct
Gogolang.org/x/syncv0.22.0direct
Gogolang.org/x/textv0.40.0direct
Gogithub.com/andybalholm/brotliv1.2.2indirect
Gogithub.com/beorn7/perksv1.0.1indirect
Gogithub.com/cespare/xxhash/v2v2.3.0indirect
Gogithub.com/containerd/errdefs/pkgv0.3.0indirect
Gogithub.com/davecgh/go-spewv1.1.2-0.20180830191138-d8f796af33ccindirect
Gogithub.com/docker/docker-credential-helpersv0.9.8indirect
Gogithub.com/docker/go-connectionsv0.8.1indirect
Gogithub.com/docker/go-unitsv0.5.0indirect
Gogithub.com/eclipse/paho.golangv0.23.0indirect
Gogithub.com/felixge/httpsnoopv1.1.0indirect
Gogithub.com/fsnotify/fsnotifyv1.10.1indirect
Gogithub.com/go-logr/logrv1.4.4indirect
Gogithub.com/go-logr/stdrv1.2.2indirect
Gogithub.com/go-openapi/jsonpointerv1.0.0indirect
Gogithub.com/go-openapi/jsonreferencev1.0.0indirect
Gogithub.com/go-openapi/specv0.22.9indirect
Gogithub.com/go-openapi/swag/convv0.28.0indirect
Gogithub.com/go-openapi/swag/jsonutilsv0.28.0indirect
Gogithub.com/go-openapi/swag/loadingv0.28.0indirect
Gogithub.com/go-openapi/swag/poolsv0.28.0indirect
Gogithub.com/go-openapi/swag/stringutilsv0.28.0indirect
Gogithub.com/go-openapi/swag/typeutilsv0.28.0indirect
Gogithub.com/go-openapi/swag/yamlutilsv0.28.0indirect
Gogithub.com/go-task/slim-sprig/v3v3.0.0indirect
Gogithub.com/go-viper/mapstructure/v2v2.5.0indirect
Gogithub.com/gofiber/schemav1.8.3indirect
Gogithub.com/gofiber/utils/v2v2.4.1indirect
Gogithub.com/google/go-cmpv0.7.0indirect
Gogithub.com/google/pprofv0.0.0-20260802141513-ef3492d7dac3indirect
Gogithub.com/google/uuidv1.6.0indirect
Gogithub.com/gorilla/websocketv1.5.3indirect
Gogithub.com/inconshreveable/mousetrapv1.1.0indirect
Gogithub.com/klauspost/compressv1.19.1indirect
Gogithub.com/kylebanks/depthv1.2.1indirect
Gogithub.com/masterminds/semver/v3v3.5.0indirect
Gogithub.com/mattn/go-colorablev0.1.15indirect
Gogithub.com/mattn/go-isattyv0.0.24indirect
Gogithub.com/microsoft/go-winiov0.6.2indirect
Gogithub.com/munnerz/goautonegv0.0.0-20191010083416-a7dc8b61c822indirect
Gogithub.com/pelletier/go-toml/v2v2.4.3indirect
Gogithub.com/philhofer/fwdv1.2.0indirect
Gogithub.com/pmezard/go-difflibv1.0.1-0.20181226105442-5d4384ee4fb2indirect
Gogithub.com/prometheus/commonv0.70.1indirect
Gogithub.com/prometheus/procfsv0.21.1indirect
Gogithub.com/sagikazarmark/locaferov0.12.0indirect
Gogithub.com/spf13/castv1.10.0indirect
Gogithub.com/stretchr/objxv0.5.3indirect
Gogithub.com/subosito/gotenvv1.6.0indirect
Gogithub.com/swaggo/files/v2v2.0.2indirect
Gogithub.com/tinylib/msgpv1.6.4indirect
Gogithub.com/valyala/bytebufferpoolv1.0.0indirect
Gogo.opentelemetry.io/auto/sdkv1.2.1indirect
Gogo.opentelemetry.io/contrib/instrumentation/net/http/otelhttpv0.69.0indirect
Gogo.opentelemetry.io/otelv1.44.0indirect
Gogo.opentelemetry.io/otel/metricv1.44.0indirect
Gogo.opentelemetry.io/otel/tracev1.44.0indirect
Gogo.yaml.in/yaml/v3v3.0.5indirect
Gogolang.org/x/cryptov0.54.0indirect
Gogolang.org/x/modv0.38.0indirect
Gogolang.org/x/netv0.57.0indirect
Gogolang.org/x/sysv0.47.0indirect
Gogolang.org/x/termv0.45.0indirect
Gogolang.org/x/toolsv0.48.0indirect
Gogoogle.golang.org/protobufv1.36.11indirect
Gogopkg.in/yaml.v3v3.0.1indirect
PyPImd-tocindirect
PyPImikeindirect
PyPImkdocsindirect
PyPImkdocs-git-revision-date-localized-pluginindirect
PyPImkdocs-materialindirect
PyPImkdocs-minify-pluginindirect
Dependency advisories 1

This repository publishes no package the index resolves, so its own dependency graph was assessed — 92 packages, which also include development and test pins that never ship: 1 carry known advisories, of which 0 are direct. 6 could not be assessed — no resolved version, an unsupported ecosystem, or beyond the reported package list.

PackageVersionRelationSeverityAdvisoriesFixed in
golang.org/x/cryptov0.54.0indirectunknown1

An advisory means the version recorded in the dependency graph falls inside an advisory’s affected range. Reachability is not analysed, and the graph includes development and test pins — a finding may concern tooling rather than shipped software.

Raw JSON report machine-readable

Feedback

Spotted something off in this report, or have thoughts to share? Wrong measurements, missed tooling, ideas, questions — anything is welcome. Every message is read and gets a response.

The message is kept through sign-in.

Scores are signals, not warranties. They reflect publicly visible practices on GitHub — not a code audit, and not a security guarantee.

Missing data is excluded and weights renormalized, never scored as zero. Methodology is versioned and open: metrics v2.10.0, schema v0.30.0 — full methodology · metrics wiki.

How one result sits in the wider record: aggregate statisticsGo.