Simple Tool Exposes GitHub Repo Sizes via Public API

Simon Willison built a small web tool that reveals the size of any GitHub repository - information GitHub doesn’t surface in its own UI. The tool works by querying GitHub’s CORS-friendly public API, making it usable directly from the browser without a backend.

It’s a minor but useful utility for developers who need to gauge repo size before cloning, or for anyone curious about project bloat. Willison demonstrates it with his own datasette repo, which clocks in at 8.1MB.