Useful Forks is a free, MIT-licensed JavaScript tool for anyone browsing GitHub who wants to find forks of a repository that actually contain new work instead of scrolling through hundreds of untouched copies.

What it is

Useful Forks is an open-source project that improves the discoverability of worthwhile forks of GitHub repositories. It is delivered in several forms from a single codebase: a website hosted for free on GitHub Pages at useful-forks.github.io, a Chrome extension published on the Chrome Web Store, a Firefox add-on published on Firefox Add-ons, and a bookmarklet that can be added by hand to any browser's bookmarks. The repository is organised simply, with a website folder holding the site and a plugin folder holding the browser extension.

The specific problem it addresses is that when a project has been abandoned, or when someone disagreed with its direction and implemented an alternative, the forks list on GitHub forces you to search through potentially hundreds of entries by hand. Useful Forks solves this by returning a filtered list of forks worth exploring: results exclude forks that have never had any commits pushed to the main branch since their creation, so only forks showing real activity against their default branch are surfaced.

Key capabilities

• Filters the fork list automatically to exclude repositories that have never received a commit pushed to the main branch since they were created.
• Accepts a repository directly by URL through the online tool, for example https://useful-forks.github.io/?repo=payne911/PieMenu.
• Adds a "Useful" button to every GitHub repository page when installed as the Chrome extension or the Firefox add-on; clicking it opens a new tab and automatically triggers a search with the online tool.
• Ships a bookmarklet — a single-line `` snippet — that reads the current github.com// address and opens the online tool for that repository in a new tab.
• Exposes its algorithm through a UML activity diagram (media/query-diagram.png) that explains the flow of a scan and why a query may sometimes require a large number of API calls.
• Provides separate published distribution channels per browser, with updates going through the Chrome Web Store and Firefox Add-ons rather than the project's GitHub Releases page.
• Welcomes contributions, with 20 open issues currently labelled as help appreciated.

Who uses it and how

• Developers evaluating whether to adopt a fork of an abandoned open-source project, pasting the repository URL into the online tool to see which forks contain pushed commits.
• Chrome users who install the extension from the Chrome Web Store and then use the injected "Useful" button while browsing GitHub directly.
• Firefox users who install the published add-on from Firefox Add-ons and get the same button-driven workflow.
• Users of other browsers who press Ctrl+D, paste the provided bookmarklet code into the URL field, and invoke it from any GitHub repository page.
• Contributors running the website locally with NodeJS (suggested v20+) and NPM (suggested v8+) to work on the site or the plugin.

Getting started

Use the online tool immediately at https://useful-forks.github.io/?repo=/, or install the extension from the Chrome Web Store, the add-on from Firefox Add-ons, or add the bookmarklet manually. To develop locally, bring a terminal to the website folder and execute npm install.

How it compares

The facts provided name no comparable tools, so Useful Forks stands alone in this registry.

When to use it — and when not

Because the filtering depends on GitHub API calls, a scan of a repository with many forks may require a large number of them, so heavy or automated use should account for API limits. It is not the right choice if you need to browse an unfiltered forks list or if you are not working with GitHub repositories at all, and note that updates now ship only through the Chrome Web Store and Firefox Add-ons rather than the project's own releases page, with 20 issues still open.

javascript:!function(){if(m=window.location.href.match(/github\.com\/([\w.-]+)\/([\w.-]+)/),m){window.open(`https://useful-forks.github.io/?repo=${m[1]}/${m[2]}`)}else window.alert("Not a GitHub repo")}();