GitHub caps your profile pins at six, repos and gists combined. The harder limit is which repos are even allowed in the list.
Not six repos plus six gists. Six items in total, and the interface stops you ticking a seventh until you untick something else.
Your profile, then Customize your pins. Tick up to six, drag them into order, save. The change is live at once, with no cache to wait out.
You can only pin repos you own or forked. Hundreds of merged pull requests to someone else's project never make it eligible.
Fork the repository, then pin your fork. The card reads forked from the original, so it stays honest while putting the project on your profile.
It shows a name, a language dot and a star count. Not whether it still builds, who uses it, or how much of it you actually wrote.
A project you abandoned three years ago outranks the thing you shipped last month, because the card has no concept of still alive.
Pins stack into one column on mobile, where many profile views happen. Slot six is a long scroll from slot one, so lead with your strongest.
Flagship, depth, range, a useful tool, active work, your README. Not six versions of the same project.