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POST /v1/developers/{id}/similar

Find developers similar to one developer

Access
Authenticated
search:read
Cost
5 credits per result returned
Rate limit
30 / minute per account
Quota
None

Find developers similar to one developer. Fans out the developer graph (co-contribute, co-star, follows, followedBy, and semantic-repo similarity) from the seed id, then RANKS the candidates against the seed on repositories they both work in, languages they both ship, and shared employers, job titles and skills, with the follow edges as a tiebreak. Returns each candidate with their hydrated profile, structured why-similar evidence (shared repos, bridge repos, mutual follow, source count), and a short why-similar summary. 5 credits per call that finds somebody, whatever the candidate count: it covers the metered graph call Vamo makes on the public-api key (graph:1 plus search:0 or 1) and the why-similar summary pass. A call that comes back with no candidates costs nothing. id is the canonical developerId (as returned by POST /v1/developers or search results), NOT a GitHub login. Candidates whose profile cannot be hydrated are omitted rather than returned without a profile, and one developer never appears twice however many graph sources surfaced them. The highest-ranked candidates also carry their contribution garden and live GitHub stats, free, so you can render them as full cards without a second request each.

Path parameters

  • id string required
    max 64 chars

Responses

  • 200 Similar developers with why-similar evidence and summaries
    • candidates array of SimilarDeveloperCandidate required

      The related developers found, most similar first. Order is decided by what the two people have done: repositories they both work in, languages they both ship, and the employers, titles and skills on their work history. Follower and following edges are a tiebreak worth a fraction of any of those, because anyone can follow anyone. Similar is not a claim that they are equally good or equally available.

      max 50 items
      • developer object required

        The candidate’s hydrated profile. A candidate whose profile cannot be hydrated is dropped rather than returned without one.

        • developerId string required

          The stable Vamo identifier for this developer (GitHub's numeric user id, stringified). This is the id every other endpoint takes: facets, reports, contacts, shortlists, steering. Use it, not `login` — a login can be renamed and then belongs to someone else.

          max 64 chars
        • login string required

          The GitHub handle as of the last snapshot. Display it, do not key on it: handles are renameable and reusable.

          max 200 chars
        • name string | null required

          Display name as the developer set it on GitHub. Null when they set none.

          max 200 chars
        • avatarUrl string | null required

          GitHub avatar image URL. Null when absent.

          max 2048 chars
        • currentRole string | null required

          A single free-text role line for the developer. Best-effort and unverified; `professional.title` is the LinkedIn-sourced equivalent when we hold a LinkedIn overlay.

          max 200 chars
        • organization object | null required

          The developer's current employer, when one is known. Null means we hold no employer, NOT that they are unemployed.

          • name string required

            The organization name as recorded.

            max 200 chars
          • logoUrl string | null required

            Organization logo URL, null when absent.

            max 2048 chars
        • university string | null required

          Most recent institution, when the LinkedIn overlay carries education. Null when unknown.

          max 200 chars
        • profiles object required

          Where this developer can be found, plus the addresses if you have already bought them.

          • github string required

            The developer’s github.com profile URL. Always present — GitHub is the identity anchor for every developer in the index.

            max 2048 chars
          • linkedin string | null required

            LinkedIn profile URL when we hold a GitHub↔LinkedIn match for this person. Null for the large majority of developers: only a minority of the indexed GitHub population carries a LinkedIn overlay, so null means "no match held", never "no LinkedIn account".

            max 2048 chars
          • emails array of string

            Every email address we hold for this developer. Present ONLY when this account has already paid to reveal them and the purchase is still within its cache window; a base search or profile read never populates it. ABSENT is not the same as "no email": absent means you have not bought it, while `hasEmail: false` means we hold none. These are addresses we have OBSERVED — from public commit metadata and cached GitHub profile data — and we do not check deliverability, so treat the order as meaningless and expect some to bounce. Buy them with the `contact.emails` facet.

            max 50 items
        • hasEmail boolean required

          Whether we hold at least one email address for this developer. It says we have an address on file, not that the address works — we do not check deliverability. The addresses themselves are never returned by a search or a base profile read: this boolean is the free signal, and the paid `contact.emails` facet is the only way to get them. Use `hasEmail` on a search request to filter to developers we hold an address for, without paying.

        • bio string | null required

          The developer’s GitHub bio, verbatim. Null when empty.

          max 5000 chars
        • location object | null required

          Self-reported location, plus our geocoding of it. Self-reported and never verified against anything: a developer can leave it stale or blank. Null when we hold nothing at all.

          • raw string | null required

            The location string exactly as the developer typed it on GitHub ("SF / remote").

            max 200 chars
          • city string | null required

            City resolved from `raw` by geocoding. Null when `raw` was empty or unresolvable.

            max 200 chars
          • country string | null required

            Country resolved from `raw`. Null when `raw` was empty or unresolvable.

            max 200 chars
        • joinedAt string | null required

          When the GitHub account was created, as an ISO 8601 instant. Null when unknown.

          max 40 chars
        • stats object | null required

          Snapshot counts and standing for this developer. These are from our index and go stale between refreshes; `GET /v1/developers/{id}` returns live GitHub equivalents alongside the contribution garden when you need current numbers. Null when we hold no stats at all.

          • followers integer | null required

            GitHub follower count at snapshot time.

            min 0, max 100000000
          • following integer | null required

            How many accounts this developer follows, at snapshot time.

            min 0, max 100000000
          • totalStars integer | null required

            Sum of stargazers across the repositories ATTRIBUTED to this developer — the same set as `repos`, so the count can never contradict the list. Owned and contributed-to repositories both count; forks do not.

            min 0, max 100000000
          • crackedScore number | null required

            Devrank: a 0–100 standing for this developer within the WHOLE indexed GitHub developer population (tens of millions of accounts), not within a language, region, or seniority peer group — so it is not a like-for-like comparison between two candidates for the same role. It is derived from the follower/contribution graph, is recomputed upstream on its own schedule, and carries no version on the wire, so the same developer can read differently across two snapshots. It contributes one term to the page-local `score` and backs the `levers.github.minDevrank` filter. Null when the developer is not in the devrank table.

          • tier string | null required

            The upstream provider’s own coarse label for `crackedScore` (for example "Elite"). The label set is the provider’s and is not a Vamo-stable vocabulary — treat it as display text and branch on `crackedScore` if you need a threshold. Null when the developer is not in the devrank table.

            max 200 chars
        • repos array of object required

          The developer’s top ATTRIBUTED public repositories — owned or authored-into, forks excluded — stars descending, capped at 12. This is a sample of their best work, not a complete repository list, and it is not an answer to "why did this person match my query" — read `evidence.matchedRepos` for that.

          max 12 items
          • name string required

            The repository name alone, without the owner (`linux`).

            max 200 chars
          • fullName string required

            GitHub `owner/name`. This is the join key: an evidence repo and a profile repo describing the same repository carry the same `fullName`.

            max 200 chars
          • description string | null required

            The repository's own GitHub description, verbatim. Null when it has none.

            max 5000 chars
          • language string | null required

            GitHub's primary language for the repository. Null when GitHub reports none (an empty or docs-only repo); never inferred from the code.

            max 200 chars
          • stars integer required

            Stargazer count at the time this profile was snapshotted, not at request time.

            min 0, max 100000000
          • commits integer

            How many commits THIS developer authored to this repository over the trailing year. This is the difference between a project they wrote and a project they landed one drive-by fix in — a 385k-star repository with 4 of their commits is not their work. Absent when no commit signal was captured; 0 means none in the trailing year, which for older dormant work is not the same as none ever.

            min 0, max 100000000
          • owned boolean

            True when the repository sits under the developer's own account, false when it is someone else's (an organisation's or another person's) and they are a contributor to it. This is the difference between "they built this" and "they committed to this", and it is the ONLY honest basis for crediting a repository's stars to a person. Absent when no ownership signal was captured; treat absent as unknown, never as false.

          • url string required

            The public github.com URL of the repository.

            max 2048 chars
        • languages array of string required

          Distinct primary languages across the developer’s repositories, at most 8. Presence means they have shipped public code in it; the list is not ranked by proficiency and carries no line counts.

          max 8 items
        • experience array of object required

          Employment history from the LinkedIn overlay, newest first. Empty for any developer we hold no LinkedIn match for, which is most of them.

          max 25 items
          • title string | null

            Job title, on an experience entry.

            max 200 chars
          • company string | null

            Employer name, on an experience entry.

            max 200 chars
          • school string | null

            Institution name, on an education entry.

            max 200 chars
          • degree string | null

            Degree awarded, on an education entry.

            max 200 chars
          • fieldOfStudy string | null

            Field of study, on an education entry.

            max 200 chars
          • startDate string | null

            Start date exactly as the source rendered it. Free text, NOT a normalised date: expect "2019", "Jan 2019" and "2019-01" from different records. Parse defensively.

            max 200 chars
          • endDate string | null

            End date in the same unnormalised free-text form as `startDate`. Absent or null on a current role.

            max 200 chars
          • current boolean | null

            The source's own "still there" flag. Set on experience entries; null on education entries.

        • education array of object required

          Education history from the LinkedIn overlay. Empty for any developer we hold no LinkedIn match for.

          max 25 items
          • title string | null

            Job title, on an experience entry.

            max 200 chars
          • company string | null

            Employer name, on an experience entry.

            max 200 chars
          • school string | null

            Institution name, on an education entry.

            max 200 chars
          • degree string | null

            Degree awarded, on an education entry.

            max 200 chars
          • fieldOfStudy string | null

            Field of study, on an education entry.

            max 200 chars
          • startDate string | null

            Start date exactly as the source rendered it. Free text, NOT a normalised date: expect "2019", "Jan 2019" and "2019-01" from different records. Parse defensively.

            max 200 chars
          • endDate string | null

            End date in the same unnormalised free-text form as `startDate`. Absent or null on a current role.

            max 200 chars
          • current boolean | null

            The source's own "still there" flag. Set on experience entries; null on education entries.

        • professional object | null

          LinkedIn-sourced professional scalars, present only when we hold a LinkedIn match for this developer. Absent or null for the majority of developers, which says nothing about their employment — only that we hold no overlay.

          • headline string | null required

            The LinkedIn headline, verbatim.

            max 5000 chars
          • title string | null required

            Current job title per LinkedIn, e.g. "Chief Technology Officer".

            max 200 chars
          • company string | null required

            Current employer per LinkedIn. Distinct from the GitHub-sourced `organization` field, and the two disagree often — LinkedIn is usually the fresher of the two.

            max 200 chars
          • seniority string | null required

            A coarse seniority label from the LinkedIn overlay ("c-level", "senior", …). Free text from the source, not a Vamo enum; do not switch on the exact string.

            max 200 chars
          • expertise array of string required

            Self-declared skill tags from the LinkedIn profile. Claimed, not demonstrated — the demonstrated equivalent is the repositories under `repos` and `evidence`.

            max 25 items
      • garden object | null required

        The candidate’s contribution garden and live GitHub stats, so a similar candidate renders as the same full card as the developer they were found from. Free. Present for the highest-ranked candidates only (the graph answers far more than any surface renders); null past that cut, and null when GitHub declined the read.

        • days array of object required

          One entry per day for the trailing ~12 months, oldest first. Days with no contributions are present with a count of 0.

          max 366 items
          • date string required

            The calendar day, `YYYY-MM-DD`, in the timezone GitHub renders the contribution calendar in.

            max 10 chars
          • count integer required

            Contributions GitHub counted on that day. GitHub’s own definition: commits to default branches, opened issues and pull requests, and reviews. It is not a measure of effort or of lines written.

            min 0, max 1000000
        • total integer required

          Total contributions across `days`. Public activity only: work in private repositories is invisible here, so a low total is not evidence of a low output.

          min 0, max 1000000
        • fetchedAt string required

          When this garden was read from GitHub, as an ISO 8601 instant. Gardens are cached, so this can be older than your request.

          max 40 chars
        • liveStats object

          Live GitHub counts fetched alongside the calendar. Absent on a garden cached before this field existed.

          • followers integer required

            Current GitHub follower count, live.

            min 0, max 100000000
          • following integer required

            How many accounts they currently follow, live.

            min 0, max 100000000
          • totalStars integer required

            Sum of stargazers across the repositories this developer OWNS (`repos[].owned === true`), forks excluded, computed live. Stars on repositories they merely contribute to are NOT counted: those stars were earned by whoever built the project. Read this as "stars on their own work", never as their total reach. Never a provider-reported aggregate.

            min 0, max 100000000
          • repos array of object required

            Their attributed repositories as they exist right now — owned plus the org-owned projects they author commits and pull requests into, each flagged by `owned` — ordered by how much of the work is theirs, weighing their own commit count against the repository’s stars rather than stars alone, with a modest weight toward what they own. Same shape as the profile’s snapshot repos, so one renderer handles both.

            max 12 items
            • name string required

              The repository name alone, without the owner (`linux`).

              max 200 chars
            • fullName string required

              GitHub `owner/name`. This is the join key: an evidence repo and a profile repo describing the same repository carry the same `fullName`.

              max 200 chars
            • description string | null required

              The repository's own GitHub description, verbatim. Null when it has none.

              max 5000 chars
            • language string | null required

              GitHub's primary language for the repository. Null when GitHub reports none (an empty or docs-only repo); never inferred from the code.

              max 200 chars
            • stars integer required

              Stargazer count at the time this profile was snapshotted, not at request time.

              min 0, max 100000000
            • commits integer

              How many commits THIS developer authored to this repository over the trailing year. This is the difference between a project they wrote and a project they landed one drive-by fix in — a 385k-star repository with 4 of their commits is not their work. Absent when no commit signal was captured; 0 means none in the trailing year, which for older dormant work is not the same as none ever.

              min 0, max 100000000
            • owned boolean

              True when the repository sits under the developer's own account, false when it is someone else's (an organisation's or another person's) and they are a contributor to it. This is the difference between "they built this" and "they committed to this", and it is the ONLY honest basis for crediting a repository's stars to a person. Absent when no ownership signal was captured; treat absent as unknown, never as false.

            • url string required

              The public github.com URL of the repository.

              max 2048 chars
      • evidence object required

        The structured reason this candidate is related to the seed: shared repositories, bridge repositories, mutual follows, and how many kinds of evidence fired.

        • developerId string required

          The related developer.

          max 64 chars
        • sharedRepoIds array of string required

          Repositories both the seed developer and this one touch, by contributing or starring. The direct co-signal.

          max 25 items
        • viaRepoIds array of string required

          Bridge repositories on an indirect path between the two, rather than repositories they share outright.

          max 25 items
        • bridgePreview string | null required

          A short human-readable preview of the strongest connection. Null when there is none to show.

          max 5000 chars
        • mutualFollow boolean required

          True when the seed developer and this one follow each other on GitHub in both directions.

        • sourceCount integer required

          How many distinct kinds of evidence fired for this candidate. Higher means the connection rests on more than one signal; it is not a similarity score.

          min 0, max 16
      • summary string required

        One or two plain sentences on what the two developers have in common: repositories they both work in, employers or job titles they share, languages they both ship, or the graph evidence when nothing at profile level matched. Derived from the two profiles and `evidence`, not from an independent judgement of the person.

        max 5000 chars
  • 401 No or invalid credential
    • code string required

      Stable machine-readable error code. Branch on this, never on the numeric status.

      bad_requestunauthorizedsignature_requiredpayment_requiredforbiddennot_foundconflictgonepayload_too_largeunprocessable_entitytoo_many_requestsinternal_errornot_implementedbilling_unavailablenot_contactablemailbox_link_unavailablemailbox_requiredmail_engine_unavailablewebhook_publisher_unavailabledatabase_unavailableclient_error
    • message string required

      Human-readable explanation of the refusal.

    • status integer required

      The HTTP status code, repeated in the body.

    • remedy object

      A self-serve path forward, when one exists (a 402 points at the credit top-up).

      • kind string required

        What kind of remedy this is, so a client can route it: whether the caller can clear the condition through the API, or a person must act in the web app.

        topupconnect_mailbox
      • url string required

        Where to go to clear the condition: an API path, or a web app page when only a person can.

  • 402 Plan lacks the capability, or the credit balance is empty
    • code string required

      Stable machine-readable error code. Branch on this, never on the numeric status.

      bad_requestunauthorizedsignature_requiredpayment_requiredforbiddennot_foundconflictgonepayload_too_largeunprocessable_entitytoo_many_requestsinternal_errornot_implementedbilling_unavailablenot_contactablemailbox_link_unavailablemailbox_requiredmail_engine_unavailablewebhook_publisher_unavailabledatabase_unavailableclient_error
    • message string required

      Human-readable explanation of the refusal.

    • status integer required

      The HTTP status code, repeated in the body.

    • remedy object

      A self-serve path forward, when one exists (a 402 points at the credit top-up).

      • kind string required

        What kind of remedy this is, so a client can route it: whether the caller can clear the condition through the API, or a person must act in the web app.

        topupconnect_mailbox
      • url string required

        Where to go to clear the condition: an API path, or a web app page when only a person can.

  • 403 Missing search:read
    • code string required

      Stable machine-readable error code. Branch on this, never on the numeric status.

      bad_requestunauthorizedsignature_requiredpayment_requiredforbiddennot_foundconflictgonepayload_too_largeunprocessable_entitytoo_many_requestsinternal_errornot_implementedbilling_unavailablenot_contactablemailbox_link_unavailablemailbox_requiredmail_engine_unavailablewebhook_publisher_unavailabledatabase_unavailableclient_error
    • message string required

      Human-readable explanation of the refusal.

    • status integer required

      The HTTP status code, repeated in the body.

    • remedy object

      A self-serve path forward, when one exists (a 402 points at the credit top-up).

      • kind string required

        What kind of remedy this is, so a client can route it: whether the caller can clear the condition through the API, or a person must act in the web app.

        topupconnect_mailbox
      • url string required

        Where to go to clear the condition: an API path, or a web app page when only a person can.

  • 429 Rate limit exceeded
    • code string required

      Stable machine-readable error code. Branch on this, never on the numeric status.

      bad_requestunauthorizedsignature_requiredpayment_requiredforbiddennot_foundconflictgonepayload_too_largeunprocessable_entitytoo_many_requestsinternal_errornot_implementedbilling_unavailablenot_contactablemailbox_link_unavailablemailbox_requiredmail_engine_unavailablewebhook_publisher_unavailabledatabase_unavailableclient_error
    • message string required

      Human-readable explanation of the refusal.

    • status integer required

      The HTTP status code, repeated in the body.

    • remedy object

      A self-serve path forward, when one exists (a 402 points at the credit top-up).

      • kind string required

        What kind of remedy this is, so a client can route it: whether the caller can clear the condition through the API, or a person must act in the web app.

        topupconnect_mailbox
      • url string required

        Where to go to clear the condition: an API path, or a web app page when only a person can.

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