# NORTH STAR METRICS

**Initiative:** INITIATIVE-011A  
**Date:** 2026-06-23  
**Time horizon:** 12 months (June 2026 → June 2027)

---

## North Star Principle

Skills-tree's North Star metric is:

> **Weekly Active Contributors (WAC)** — the number of unique contributors who open a PR, issue, or Discussion in a given week.

WAC is chosen because:
- It directly measures community health, not just passive consumption
- Every WAC unit represents a person who found skills-tree valuable enough to act
- A healthy WAC creates a compounding flywheel: more contributors → more skills → more users → more stars → more contributors

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## 12-Month Targets

### Primary Metrics

| Metric | Current (estimated) | 6-Month Target | 12-Month Target |
|--------|--------------------|--------------|-----------------|
| GitHub Stars | — | 1,500 | **5,000** |
| Weekly Active Contributors | — | 10 | **25** |
| Total Contributors (all-time) | — | 50 | **200** |
| PyPI monthly downloads | — | 2,000/mo | **10,000/mo** |

### Content & Knowledge Metrics

| Metric | Current | 6-Month Target | 12-Month Target |
|--------|---------|--------------|----------------|
| Total skills (nodes) | 368 | 450 | **500+** |
| Battle-tested skills | ~50 | 100 | **150** |
| REQUIRES edges | 15 | 60 | **150** |
| Benchmarks | 4 | 25 | **50** |
| Learning paths | 0 | 10 | **30** |
| Systems | 6 | 15 | **25** |
| Blueprints | 6 | 15 | **25** |
| Blueprint templates | 6 | 20 | **100** |

### Platform Metrics

| Metric | Current | 6-Month Target | 12-Month Target |
|--------|---------|--------------|----------------|
| Interactive explorer (live) | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ Enhanced |
| Goal-to-Blueprint generator | ❌ | ✅ V1 | ✅ V2 |
| Contributor scoreboard | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Learning paths (user-facing) | ❌ | ✅ 10 paths | ✅ 30 paths |
| GitHub Discussions active | ❌ | ✅ | 50+ threads/month |
| MCP registry listing | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |

### Distribution Metrics

| Metric | Current | 6-Month Target | 12-Month Target |
|--------|---------|--------------|----------------|
| HN Show HN posts | 0 | 1 (target front page) | 3 |
| Reddit r/ML posts | 0 | 4 | 12 |
| LinkedIn posts | 0 | 24 | 48 |
| Dev.to articles | 0 | 6 | 12 |
| YouTube videos | 0 | 2 | 8 |

---

## Milestone Gates

| Milestone | Target | Unlock |
|-----------|--------|--------|
| 🌱 Seed | 100 stars | Enable GitHub Discussions |
| 🌿 Sprout | 500 stars | Launch Discord |
| 🌳 Growth | 1,000 stars | Announce on HN + Product Hunt |
| 🚀 Momentum | 2,500 stars | Newsletter launch |
| 🏆 Authority | 5,000 stars | Press outreach + conference talks |
| 🌍 Ecosystem | 10,000 stars | API v2 + enterprise partnerships |

---

## Flywheel Model

```
More skills → Better coverage → More usefulness
     ↑                                    ↓
More contributors ← More stars ← More discovery
     ↑                                    ↓
More recognition ← More content ← More sharing
```

Every action that improves ONE node of this flywheel accelerates ALL nodes.

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## Leading Indicators (weekly tracking)

| Indicator | Why it matters |
|-----------|---------------|
| New PRs opened | Contributor pipeline health |
| New issues opened | Community engagement |
| Stars gained this week | Discovery momentum |
| PyPI downloads this week | Developer adoption |
| Social media impressions | Distribution health |

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*Review these metrics monthly. Adjust growth roadmap based on which metrics are lagging.*
