# SourceCred Technical Specification

**URL:** <https://discourse.sourcecred.io/t/sourcecred-technical-specification/494>\
**Category:** Getting Started\
**Created:** [December 27, 2019, 5:40pm UTC](https://discourse.sourcecred.io/t/sourcecred-technical-specification/494 "2019-12-27T17:40:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![burrrata](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex032/user_avatar/discourse.sourcecred.io/burrrata/32/135_2.png) [@burrrata](https://discourse.sourcecred.io/u/burrrata)\
**Post date:** [December 27, 2019, 5:40pm UTC](https://discourse.sourcecred.io/t/sourcecred-technical-specification/494/1 "2019-12-27T17:40:04Z")

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I want to really understand how SourceCred works. While there’s a lot of high level overviews in various places, there isn’t a protocol specification or whitepaper. Starting this thread so that we can aggregate reference material useful to help people understand SourceCred and also draft a protocol specification that explains how SourceCred actually works 🙂

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**Author:** ![burrrata](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex032/user_avatar/discourse.sourcecred.io/burrrata/32/135_2.png) [@burrrata](https://discourse.sourcecred.io/u/burrrata)\
**Post date:** [December 27, 2019, 5:40pm UTC](https://discourse.sourcecred.io/t/sourcecred-technical-specification/494/2 "2019-12-27T17:40:24Z")

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> Just going to dump stuff here to be organized later

> **[PageRank](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank)**
>
> PageRank (PR) is an algorithm used by Google Search to rank web pages in their search engine results. It is named after both the term "web page" and co-founder Larry Page. PageRank is a way of measuring the importance of website pages. According to Google: .mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0} PageRank works by counting the number and qualit...

> **[GitHub - sourcecred/sourcecred: a social algorithm for computing cred](https://github.com/sourcecred/sourcecred)**
>
> a social algorithm for computing cred. Contribute to sourcecred/sourcecred development by creating an account on GitHub.

[https://sourcecred.io/cred/](https://sourcecred.io/cred/)

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**Author:** ![burrrata](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex032/user_avatar/discourse.sourcecred.io/burrrata/32/135_2.png) [@burrrata](https://discourse.sourcecred.io/u/burrrata)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2019, 2:26am UTC](https://discourse.sourcecred.io/t/sourcecred-technical-specification/494/3 "2019-12-30T02:26:41Z")

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Related effort:

> [@Cred Analysis Notebooks](https://discourse.sourcecred.io/t/cred-analysis-notebooks/267):
>
> Cred Analysis Notebooks Status: help wanted Occasionally new types of Notebooks are created, but there’s room for a lot more. Additionally it’s a great starting point for new contributors. Please give a shoutout if you’d like to help. Champion: None atm. It would be very helpful if a Champion could oversee the quality, organization and prioritized wishlist of Notebooks. Initiative Description: Observable Notebooks have proven extremely useful tools for building new interfaces, experiences, and…