CHAOSS Metrics Explained: Understanding Community Health Beyond Stars and Forks

GitHub stars are vanity metrics. Real project health requires deeper analysis. The CHAOSS (Community Health Analytics for Open Source Software) Foundation provides a comprehensive framework for measuring what actually matters: contributor sustainability, project velocity, and community engagement quality. Key CHAOSS metrics include: **Contributor Metrics:** - New contributor retention rates - Contributor diversity and inclusion scores - Bus factor (risk of key contributor departure) - Mentorship effectiveness **Project Health Metrics:** - Time to first response - Issue resolution velocity - Code review thoroughness - Release frequency and stability **Community Engagement:** - Discussion quality and toxicity levels - Cross-project collaboration - Documentation completeness - User satisfaction scores Modern tools can automatically collect and analyze these metrics, providing maintainers with actionable insights into their project's true health. This data-driven approach enables better decision-making around resource allocation, contributor recognition, and community building strategies. Projects that actively monitor CHAOSS metrics show 40% better long-term sustainability compared to those that don't.