The 10 Hottest AI Repositories on GitHub Right Now (February 2026)

From autonomous hackers to on-device multimodal models, these repos are defining the cutting edge. Combined: 800K+ stars.

The Rankings

🥇 #1: Stable Diffusion Web UI

Stars: 160K+ | Language: Python

The definitive interface for running Stable Diffusion locally. February 2026 updates include SD 4.0 support and real-time video generation.

Why it's trending: SD 4.0 release brought massive quality improvements

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🥈 #2: MCP Servers Collection

Stars: 80.5K | Language: TypeScript

The official collection of Model Context Protocol servers. MCP has become the standard for connecting AI to tools.

Why it's trending: MCP adoption exploded after Claude Code integration

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🥉 #3: LLM from Scratch

Stars: 84.8K | Language: Python

Step-by-step implementation of a ChatGPT-like LLM in PyTorch. The best educational resource for understanding transformers.

Why it's trending: Updated for 2026 architectures (MoE, extended context)

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#4: Shannon (AI Pentester)

Stars: 45K | Language: Python

Fully autonomous AI hacker achieving 96% success on XBOW benchmark. Finds and proves real exploits.

Why it's trending: Security teams adopting it for continuous testing github.com/KeygraphHQ/shannon

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#5: Firecrawl

Stars: 80.3K | Language: TypeScript

Turn entire websites into LLM-ready markdown or structured data. Essential for RAG pipelines.

Why it's trending: Best-in-class web scraping for AI

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#6: On-Device MLLM

Stars: 38K | Language: Python/C++

Gemini 2.5 Flash-level multimodal LLM running on mobile devices. Vision, speech, and live streaming.

Why it's trending: Mobile AI finally becoming practical

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#7: RAGFlow

Stars: 52K | Language: Python

Open-source RAG engine with production-ready retrieval and generation. Handles complex knowledge bases.

Why it's trending: RAG is now table stakes; this is the best implementation

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#8: Generative AI for Beginners (Microsoft)

Stars: 71K | Language: Jupyter Notebooks

21-lesson course teaching generative AI from scratch. Microsoft Cloud Advocates' best educational content.

Why it's trending: Most accessible path into AI development

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#9: OpenClaw

Stars: 135K | Language: TypeScript

The viral AI agent that runs locally and connects to your messaging apps. 'The lobster way.'

Why it's trending: Fastest-growing project of 2026 so far github.com/openclaw/openclaw

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#10: LLM Course

Stars: 74.6K | Language: Jupyter Notebooks

Comprehensive roadmap for getting into LLMs with Colab notebooks. Updated monthly.

Why it's trending: Consistent quality, community-driven updates

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Trending This Week

RepositoryDaily StarsCategory Shannon+1,200Security OpenClaw+980Agents MCP Servers+750Infrastructure On-Device MLLM+620Mobile Firecrawl+580Data

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Key Trends

1. Agents Everywhere

The top repos are increasingly about autonomous systems, not just models.

2. Local-First

Privacy and cost concerns are driving on-device and self-hosted solutions.

3. Infrastructure Maturity

MCP, RAG frameworks, and data pipelines are becoming production-ready.

4. Security Focus

Tools like Shannon reflect growing awareness of AI security needs.

5. Education

High-quality learning resources continue to dominate the trending lists.

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How to Stay Current

1. Watch github.com/trending daily 2. Follow key contributors on Twitter/X 3. Join Discord servers for major projects 4. Subscribe to AI newsletters (The Batch, Import AI) 5. Star repos you want to track

The pace of AI open source development is unprecedented. What's cutting-edge today is table stakes next month.

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