🔥 ForgeOS v1.0.0 — Initial Release
ForgeOS is here: a free, open source, cross-platform companion for discovering trending repositories, finding beginner-friendly issues, and getting AI-powered guidance for your first open source contribution — all from one Flutter codebase, with no backend and no account required.
If you've ever wanted to contribute to open source and didn't know where to start, this one's for you.
✨ What's in this release
Discover
- Trending repositories by day, week, or month, filterable by language
- Full repository search with language, topic, star, and sort filters
- "Active this week" feed of recently updated, currently-popular projects
- Infinite scrolling, pull-to-refresh, and skeleton loading states throughout
Contribute
- Issue finder scoped to
good first issue,help wanted,documentation, and more - Local contribution tracker — Saved → In Progress → Completed
- Offline bookmarks for repos and issues, with cached READMEs for offline reading
- Recently viewed repositories and search history
Understand
- Repository detail pages with rendered Markdown and syntax-highlighted code
- GitHub profile viewer for any user or organization
- Optional GraphQL contribution insights (good-first-issue counts, commit totals) with a personal access token
AI Assistant (Gemini free tier)
- Plain-language issue explanations with difficulty estimation and reasoning
- Recommended learning resources and prerequisite skills per issue
- Implementation guidance that stops short of a full solution, by design
- Repository-tailored learning roadmaps and README summarization
- Persistent follow-up Q&A chat
Design
- Dark theme by default, with a full light theme
- Custom Material 3 palette, hover effects, and smooth transitions on desktop/web
- Fully responsive — bottom nav on mobile, navigation rail on tablet and desktop
📥 Downloads
| Platform | File | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 🪟 Windows | ForgeOS-Setup-1.0.0.exe | Standard installer — per-user install, Start Menu + optional desktop shortcut, clean uninstaller |
| 🌐 Web | Live app | Runs in any modern browser, no install |
| 🤖 Android | forgeos-1.0.0.apk | Enable "install from unknown sources" if sideloading |
| 🍎 macOS | coming soon | Build from source in the meantime — see README |
| 🐧 Linux | coming soon | Build from source in the meantime — see README |
Windows SmartScreen note: this build isn't code-signed yet, so Windows may show an "Unrecognized app" warning on first run. Click More info → Run anyway. Signing is on the roadmap for a future release.
SHA-256 checksums
ForgeOS-Setup-1.0.0.exe <checksum>
forgeos-1.0.0.apk <checksum>
⚙️ Setup
No account or API key is required to use ForgeOS — GitHub browsing and search work out of the box. Two optional, free keys unlock more:
- Gemini API key — enables the AI Assistant. Get one free at aistudio.google.com/apikey, add it in Settings.
- GitHub personal access token — raises the rate limit from ~60/hr to 5,000/hr and unlocks contribution insights. No scopes required. Add it in Settings.
Both are stored locally on your device only.
🐛 Known issues
- macOS and Linux builds aren't packaged yet — Windows, Android, and Web are the supported binaries for this release
- Without a GitHub token, the free 60 requests/hour rate limit can be hit quickly during heavy browsing sessions
- The AI Assistant requires a Gemini key and an internet connection; it has no offline fallback
🙏 Thanks
Thanks to everyone who tested early builds and gave feedback. If ForgeOS helps you land your first (or fiftieth) open source contribution, a ⭐ on the repo goes a long way toward helping the next developer find it.
Full changelog: first release — nothing to diff against yet.
## 🔥 ForgeOS v1.0.0 — Initial ReleaseForgeOS is here: a free, open source, cross-platform companion for discovering trending repositories, finding beginner-friendly issues, and getting AI-powered guidance for your first open source contribution — all from one Flutter codebase, with no backend and no account required.
If you've ever wanted to contribute to open source and didn't know where to start, this one's for you.
✨ What's in this release
Discover
- Trending repositories by day, week, or month, filterable by language
- Full repository search with language, topic, star, and sort filters
- "Active this week" feed of recently updated, currently-popular projects
- Infinite scrolling, pull-to-refresh, and skeleton loading states throughout
Contribute
- Issue finder scoped to
good first issue,help wanted,documentation, and more - Local contribution tracker — Saved → In Progress → Completed
- Offline bookmarks for repos and issues, with cached READMEs for offline reading
- Recently viewed repositories and search history
Understand
- Repository detail pages with rendered Markdown and syntax-highlighted code
- GitHub profile viewer for any user or organization
- Optional GraphQL contribution insights (good-first-issue counts, commit totals) with a personal access token
AI Assistant (Gemini free tier)
- Plain-language issue explanations with difficulty estimation and reasoning
- Recommended learning resources and prerequisite skills per issue
- Implementation guidance that stops short of a full solution, by design
- Repository-tailored learning roadmaps and README summarization
- Persistent follow-up Q&A chat
Design
- Dark theme by default, with a full light theme
- Custom Material 3 palette, hover effects, and smooth transitions on desktop/web
- Fully responsive — bottom nav on mobile, navigation rail on tablet and desktop
📥 Downloads
| Platform | File | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 🪟 Windows | ForgeOS-Setup-1.0.0.exe |
Standard installer — per-user install, Start Menu + optional desktop shortcut, clean uninstaller |
| 🌐 Web | [Live app](#) | Runs in any modern browser, no install |
| 🤖 Android | forgeos-1.0.0.apk |
Enable "install from unknown sources" if sideloading |
| 🍎 macOS | coming soon | Build from source in the meantime — see [README](README.md#-building-for-release) |
| 🐧 Linux | coming soon | Build from source in the meantime — see [README](README.md#-building-for-release) |
Windows SmartScreen note: this build isn't code-signed yet, so Windows may show an "Unrecognized app" warning on first run. Click More info → Run anyway. Signing is on the roadmap for a future release.
SHA-256 checksums
ForgeOS-Setup-1.0.0.exe <checksum>
forgeos-1.0.0.apk <checksum>
⚙️ Setup
No account or API key is required to use ForgeOS — GitHub browsing and search work out of the box. Two optional, free keys unlock more:
- Gemini API key — enables the AI Assistant. Get one free at [aistudio.google.com/apikey](https://aistudio.google.com/apikey), add it in Settings.
- GitHub personal access token — raises the rate limit from ~60/hr to 5,000/hr and unlocks contribution insights. No scopes required. Add it in Settings.
Both are stored locally on your device only.
🐛 Known issues
- macOS and Linux builds aren't packaged yet — Windows, Android, and Web are the supported binaries for this release
- Without a GitHub token, the free 60 requests/hour rate limit can be hit quickly during heavy browsing sessions
- The AI Assistant requires a Gemini key and an internet connection; it has no offline fallback
🙏 Thanks
Thanks to everyone who tested early builds and gave feedback. If ForgeOS helps you land your first (or fiftieth) open source contribution, a ⭐ on the repo goes a long way toward helping the next developer find it.
Full changelog: first release — nothing to diff against yet.