Questions and answers

One editor reads every project before it goes on the site. A pick has an OSI-approved open-source license, is actively maintained, is original work, and solves a real problem. We look for projects that are quietly good rather than famous.

Nobody can pay for a pick or for a place in the index. There are no ads, sponsorships, or affiliate links.

Every Monday. The week’s 10 picks go live together at 00:00 Chicago time and stay in the weekly archive after that. New projects are added to the index between Mondays, too.

Open-source projects the editor has approved: apps, tools, libraries, models, and lists. Each one needs an OSI-approved license and a README, and can’t be a fork. Every number on a listing, like stars or the last commit, comes from the GitHub API.

“Picked by the editor” means a project was one of a week’s 10 picks. “Featured by Willet” means we added it to the index.

Usually one of these:

• We haven’t found it or reviewed it yet.
• Its license isn’t OSI-approved, or GitHub can’t tell what it is.
• It’s a fork, has no README, or copies someone else’s product.
• It has fewer than 10 stars or no commits in the last year. We check these by hand, so they aren’t hard rules.
• It was archived on GitHub or lost its license, so we hid it.
• Its maker asked us to remove it.

Know a project that should be here? Suggest it.

Open its page and use “Request removal”. If you’re signed in with the GitHub account that owns the repo (or you’re a public member of the organization that owns it), the listing is hidden right away while the editor reviews the request. Otherwise the request goes to the editor, and nothing is hidden until they look at it.

Two exceptions: a project that is this week’s or an upcoming pick is flagged for the editor instead of hidden, and if a lot of listings were hidden automatically in the last 24 hours, new requests wait for the editor. Confirmed removals are permanent: we won’t add the project again.

You don’t need an account to browse. Signing in is only for writing comments and for proving you own a repo when you ask for its removal. You sign in with GitHub; we never see your GitHub password.

We keep your GitHub username, your numeric GitHub id, your display name, your avatar link, and the date your GitHub account was created (to check the 30-day rule for comments). GitHub also shares your email address with our sign-in service, which keeps it with your login; we never copy, show, or use it. The privacy page has the full list.

Anyone signed in with a GitHub account that is at least 30 days old. Comments are plain text with links. You can edit or delete your own. The terms have the rules.

It stars the repo on your own GitHub account, the same as starring it on GitHub. The first time, GitHub asks you to authorize the Willet app. It can do one thing: star and unstar repos for you. It can’t read your code, your email, or anything else.

This is separate from signing in here, and works without it. The GitHub key for it is kept encrypted in a cookie in your browser, not in our database. Use “Disconnect GitHub” in the Star button’s menu to revoke it. Your stars on GitHub stay as they are.

Some project pages show public posts that link to the project, from Hacker News, Reddit, and Bluesky. We keep the link, the title or a short excerpt, the author’s public handle, the date, and the post’s points and comment counts. The editor can hide any of them.

We don’t send any emails yet. When you sign up, your address waits until you confirm it from the first email, once sending starts.

If you signed up while signed in, the newsletter block shows “You’re on the list” with an Unsubscribe button. If you signed up without signing in, there’s no way to unsubscribe on the site yet; every email will carry an unsubscribe link once sending starts.