Health Tiers
Not all tools are equally maintained. ToolPilot computes a maintenance score for every tool in the graph, then maps it to one of four health tiers that agents can use to make informed recommendations.
The Four Tiers
Excellent
80–100Actively maintained with frequent commits, responsive issue triage, regular releases, and a healthy contributor base. Safe bet for production.
Good
60–79Well-maintained with solid activity. May have slightly slower release cycles or smaller contributor pools, but still reliable.
Fair
40–59Showing signs of reduced activity. May have long gaps between commits, slow issue response, or infrequent releases. Use with awareness.
Poor
0–39Minimal recent activity. May be abandoned, archived, or in maintenance-only mode. Consider alternatives unless the tool is uniquely suited.
Scoring Formula
The maintenance score is a weighted composite of five GitHub-derived signals. Each signal is normalized to a 0–1 range before weighting:
maintenance_score = (
stars_normalized × 0.15 +
commit_frequency × 0.30 +
issue_response_time × 0.20 +
release_cadence × 0.20 +
contributor_count_norm × 0.15
) × 100
Where each factor is normalized to 0–1 range:
stars_normalized = log10(stars + 1) / log10(max_stars + 1)
commit_frequency = min(commits_last_90d / 50, 1.0)
issue_response_time = max(1 - (avg_days_to_respond / 30), 0)
release_cadence = min(releases_last_year / 12, 1.0)
contributor_count_norm = min(contributors / 100, 1.0)Health Signals
Each signal captures a different dimension of project health:
| Signal | Weight | What It Measures | Graph Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commit Frequency | 30% | Commits in the last 90 days — proxy for active development | last_commit_date |
| Issue Response Time | 20% | Average days to first response on new issues | open_issues_ratio |
| Release Cadence | 20% | Number of releases in the past year — regular shipping signals stability | release_frequency |
| Stars | 15% | Community interest and trust (log-scaled to prevent outlier dominance) | stars |
| Contributors | 15% | Active contributor count — bus factor and community health | contributor_count |
How Health Affects Search
Health tiers influence the search pipeline in two ways:
- Stage 3 graph reranking — Tools with higher health scores receive a slight boost to their graph score, reflecting the signal that well-maintained tools are more likely to be good recommendations.
- Stage 4 selection — When two tools are within the 20% score threshold, health tier differences (stable vs. emerging) can trigger a two-option recommendation instead of a single pick.
Health ≠ Quality
Refresh Cadence
Health scores are recalculated by the GitHub indexer on a rolling basis. Each tool is refreshed at least once every 7 days, with high-traffic tools refreshed more frequently. The updated_at property on each Tool node indicates when its health data was last recalculated.