Statizoid Global Open-Source Documentation 'API Reference' Section Length Drift

🖧 Technology & Internet

Global Open-Source Documentation 'API Reference' Section Length Drift

Tracking the average and median length of API reference sections in global open-source projects.

Observations
8
Tracking since
Last updated

Average API Reference Length

Average character count of API reference sections in global open-source projects.

6 observations across 3 series · measured in characters

3,178 characters
cloudflare/cloudflare-docs, github_repo
▬ 0.0% vs previous
16 Oct 2026 15:32
2,091 characters
Average API Reference Length
▬ 0.0% vs previous
16 Oct 2026 15:32
1,004 characters
strapi/documentation, github_repo
▬ 0.0% vs previous
16 Oct 2026 15:32
Average API Reference Length (characters) — summary, last 30 days.
  • cloudflare/cloudflare-docs, github_repo
  • Average API Reference Length
  • strapi/documentation, github_repo
1,0001,5002,0002,5003,00015:2415:2815:32cloudflare/cloudflare-docs, github_repo: 3,178 characters — 16 Oct 2026 15:24cloudflare/cloudflare-docs, github_repo: 3,178 characters — 16 Oct 2026 15:32Average API Reference Length: 2,091 characters — 16 Oct 2026 15:24Average API Reference Length: 2,091 characters — 16 Oct 2026 15:32strapi/documentation, github_repo: 1,004 characters — 16 Oct 2026 15:24strapi/documentation, github_repo: 1,004 characters — 16 Oct 2026 15:32
Average API Reference Length (characters) — line, last 30 days.
  • cloudflare/cloudflare-docs, github_repo3,178 characters
  • Average API Reference Length2,091 characters
  • strapi/documentation, github_repo1,004 characters
Average API Reference Length (characters) — bar, last 30 days.
  • cloudflare/cloudflare-docs, github_repo3,178 characters
  • Average API Reference Length2,091 characters
  • strapi/documentation, github_repo1,004 characters
Average API Reference Length (characters) — dot plot, last 30 days.
Average API Reference Length (characters) — share, last 30 days.
1,004 characters–1,185.2 characters: 2 observations1,185.2 characters–1,366.3 characters: 0 observations1,366.3 characters–1,547.5 characters: 0 observations1,547.5 characters–1,728.7 characters: 0 observations1,728.7 characters–1,909.8 characters: 0 observations1,909.8 characters–2,091 characters: 0 observations2,091 characters–2,272.2 characters: 2 observations2,272.2 characters–2,453.3 characters: 0 observations2,453.3 characters–2,634.5 characters: 0 observations2,634.5 characters–2,815.7 characters: 0 observations2,815.7 characters–2,996.8 characters: 0 observations2,996.8 characters–3,178 characters: 2 observations1,004 characters3,178 characters2
Average API Reference Length (characters) — distribution, last 30 days.
061218
16 Oct

Darker = higher average api reference length. Empty cells are hours with no collection.

Average API Reference Length (characters) — heatmap, last 30 days.
WhenSeriesAverage API Reference Length
Average API Reference Length2,091 characters
cloudflare/cloudflare-docs, github_repo3,178 characters
strapi/documentation, github_repo1,004 characters
Average API Reference Length2,091 characters
cloudflare/cloudflare-docs, github_repo3,178 characters
strapi/documentation, github_repo1,004 characters
Average API Reference Length (characters) — table, last 30 days.

Median API Reference Length

Median character count of API reference sections in global open-source projects.

2 observations · measured in characters

3,178 characters
Median API Reference Length
▬ 0.0% vs previous
16 Oct 2026 15:32
Median API Reference Length (characters) — summary, last 30 days.
01,0002,0003,00015:2415:2815:32Median API Reference Length: 3,178 characters — 16 Oct 2026 15:24Median API Reference Length: 3,178 characters — 16 Oct 2026 15:32
Median API Reference Length (characters) — line, last 30 days.
01,0002,0003,00015:2415:2815:32Median API Reference Length: 3,178 characters — 16 Oct 2026 15:24Median API Reference Length: 3,178 characters — 16 Oct 2026 15:32
Median API Reference Length (characters) — area, last 30 days.
WhenMedian API Reference Length
3,178 characters
3,178 characters
Median API Reference Length (characters) — table, last 30 days.

About this data

This page monitors the character count of 'API Reference' sections across a diverse range of popular open-source software projects. We analyse both the average and median length to understand how these crucial developer resources are evolving.

These figures are derived from publicly available documentation for a curated list of prominent open-source projects. By observing changes over time, we aim to highlight trends in documentation comprehensiveness, offering insights into how developers are describing their project interfaces.

Understanding this 'documentation drift' is important as comprehensive API references are vital for developers onboarding to or contributing to open-source projects. This granular tracking provides a unique perspective on the health and usability of documentation in the open-source ecosystem.

Sources

Every figure on this page was read from these pages.

Why this isn't published anywhere else

While the concept of API drift and tools to detect it are widely covered, there is no existing source that specifically tracks the 'API Reference' section length drift across a broad set of open-source projects as a recurring metric.

Uniqueness score 0.90 — assessed against live web search results when this subject was created.