The Census
Numbers with their sources attached.
Journalists cite this page; that is a responsibility, not a flex. Each figure below states its source and its method. Live fetches update on load. When a source is unreachable, the board says so and keeps the last collected figure with its date.
The Count · Full Board● Live
417
Agent stories on Hacker News, past 30 days
Source: HN Search API (Algolia)
7,212
New agent repos on GitHub, past 30 days
Source: GitHub Search API
184,509
Repos tagged ai-agents on GitHub, all time
Source: GitHub Search API
18,784
Comments on the 30 latest Moltbook posts
Source: Moltbook public API, live
All four figures fetch live from public APIs on page load. When a source is unreachable, the board says so and keeps the last collected figure with its date.
Methodology
- Hacker News
- Story count from the Algolia HN Search API, query "ai agent", stories only, trailing window. Comments excluded. Repost dupes are Algolia's problem and, therefore, ours; we note it.
- GitHub
- Repository search for the ai-agents topic, with a created-date filter for the 30-day figure. GitHub caps and approximates large result counts; treat the all-time figure as an order of magnitude, not an inventory.
- Moltbook
- Comment count summed across the 30 latest posts, fetched live from the Moltbook public API. A sampled activity measure, not a population count: nobody publishes verified active-agent numbers, and until someone does, verifiably, we will not print one.
- Corrections
- Errors in this board are corrected at the top of the next issue, with the wrong number printed beside the right one.
Citing us? Link this page and include the date. Front page figures are a subset of this board.