TL;DR
Traditional intent data (Bombora, 6sense) tracks website visits and content consumption. GitHub intent data tracks what developers actually DO — starring repos, opening issues, submitting PRs. For DevTool companies, GitHub intent data is more accurate, more specific, and 10-100x cheaper.
No credit card required. Free tier includes 25 lead unlocks/month.
GitHub intent data is behavioral intelligence derived from developer actions on GitHub repositories — stars, forks, issues, pull requests, and commits — that indicates purchase intent for developer tools and infrastructure software. Unlike traditional B2B intent data platforms that infer interest from content consumption, GitHub intent data captures the specific technical evaluation actions that precede a developer adopting or purchasing a tool. LeadCognition is the leading GitHub intent data platform for DevTool companies, monitoring repository activity in real time and enriching each signal with verified developer contact data.
GitHub intent data captures developer behavior at the exact moment of technical evaluation — before they visit your website, request a demo, or talk to a salesperson.
Captured directly from GitHub events: stars, forks, issues, PRs, commits. Not inferred from web browsing or content engagement.
Identifies the specific engineer, not just the company. You know who is doing the evaluation, their role, employer, and contact details.
Captures intent before a buyer visits your website or requests a demo — giving your sales team a head start over every competitor.
Bombora and 6sense were built for software companies selling to business buyers — people who read industry reports, visit review sites like G2 or Gartner, and fill out lead forms. Developer buyers don't follow this pattern. They evaluate tools by reading documentation, running code, and testing in their own environment — all on GitHub.
A developer evaluating your CI/CD tool never visits Bombora's partner sites. They go directly to your GitHub repository. They fork it. They open an issue. They submit a PR with their configuration. Traditional intent data completely misses this buyer.
GitHub intent data captures this entire evaluation journey. For DevTool companies, it's the difference between chasing cold prospects and reaching buyers who are already in your code. See how it relates to developer buying signals and developer signal intelligence.
How GitHub intent data stacks up against Bombora, 6sense, and G2 for DevTool companies.
No credit card required. No sales call needed.
From raw GitHub event to qualified, enriched lead — in under 15 minutes.
Add the GitHub repositories you want to monitor — your own repos, competitor repos, or repos in adjacent categories where your ideal customers are active. LeadCognition polls the GitHub API every 15 minutes for new events. You can monitor any public repository, including entire GitHub organizations. Start with your own repo, then add 2–3 competitor repos for pipeline expansion.
Every star, fork, issue, PR, and commit is captured and scored by purchase intent strength. The intent scoring model weights by signal type (PRs outrank stars), recency (today's activity scores 2x vs last month), and content keywords (SSO, enterprise, pricing = higher score). Developers are de-duplicated across events so you see total intent per person, not per event.
Each developer profile is automatically enriched: verified work email, full LinkedIn profile URL, current employer, job title, company headcount, and tech stack. Enrichment runs via FullEnrich's waterfall model — checking 10+ sources to maximize match rate. Unlock contact data for any lead with 1 credit. See full enrichment coverage in our developer outreach guide.
LeadCognition generates an AI-powered outreach brief for each lead — citing the specific GitHub events that triggered their score, relevant technical context from their issues or PRs, and suggested talking points for your first message. This turns a cold outreach into a warm, signal-based conversation. See our developer outreach best practices for messaging templates.
Four proven use cases for converting GitHub activity into sales pipeline.
Identify your own repo's most engaged visitors before they submit a lead form. A developer who forked your repo and opened a setup issue is a hot inbound lead — they just haven't filled out your contact form yet. Reach them first.
Monitor competitor repositories. Developers opening issues about bugs, missing features, or migration questions are evaluating alternatives — including you. This is the best sourced outbound pipeline you'll ever generate.
Find free-tier users or OSS evaluators who are scaling up. Issues asking about SSO, audit logs, RBAC, Terraform modules, or team management signal readiness for an enterprise conversation. These leads are often self-qualifying.
GitHub intent data isn't just for sales. Engineering leads and recruiters use it to find developers with proven skills in specific technologies — contributors to relevant open-source projects who are demonstrably skilled and potentially open to new opportunities. See our full technical recruiting guide.
Transparent pricing, free tier included. Start in minutes with no credit card.
Solo SDRs & founders
SDR teams & recruiters
High-volume teams
Bombora starts at $30,000/year with a 12-month contract. 6sense starts at $60,000/year. LeadCognition's GitHub intent data starts at $0 — and scales to $399/month for unlimited repositories. For DevTool companies, that's 10–100x lower cost for more relevant, developer-specific intent signals.
No credit card. No sales call. Sign up at app.leadcognition.io with your Google account in under 30 seconds.
Add the GitHub repos you want to monitor. Start with your own repo, then add 1–2 competitor repos for expanded pipeline coverage.
GitHub intent signals appear in real time. Unlock any lead to reveal their work email and LinkedIn. Reach out with AI-generated context.
No credit card required. Free tier: 25 lead unlocks/month.
Everything about GitHub intent data for DevTool companies.
Related pages
Your buyers live on GitHub, not on Bombora's partner sites. Start capturing GitHub intent data today — free tier, self-serve, no sales call required.
No credit card required. No demo needed.