| name | release-downloads |
| description | Use when checking GitHub release download counts, asset popularity, or tracking adoption across versions |
Release Downloads
Overview
Report GitHub release download stats per version and asset. Only surfaces assets with 1+ downloads to cut noise.
When to Use
- Checking how many times releases have been downloaded
- Comparing adoption across versions
- Identifying which platforms users download (macOS, Windows, Linux)
Quick Reference
Run this script via Bash and present the output as-is:
total=0
for tag in $(gh release list --json tagName --jq '.[].tagName'); do
assets=$(gh release view "$tag" --json assets --jq '[.assets[] | select(.downloadCount > 0) | {name, downloads: .downloadCount}]')
if [ "$assets" != "[]" ]; then
echo "## $tag"
echo "$assets" | jq -r '.[] | " \(.name): \(.downloads)"'
subtotal=$(echo "$assets" | jq '[.[].downloads] | add')
total=$((total + subtotal))
echo " Subtotal: $subtotal"
echo ""
fi
done
echo "Total downloads across all releases: $total"
Versions with zero downloads across all assets are omitted entirely.
Common Mistakes
- GitHub only counts downloads from the Releases page or API asset URLs —
gh release download, git clone, and auto-updater fetches may not register.
- Draft releases don't track download counts.
- Counts can lag behind due to CDN caching.
