Issues missing from the search query results

[psss]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

💬 Feature/Topic Area

API

Body

It seems that some items are missing in the search query results.
For example, for the following query a single issue fmf#150 is listed:

• https://api.github.com/search/issues?q=repo:teemtee/fmf+author:psss+created:2022-01-01..2022-01-31
• https://github.com/teemtee/fmf/issues?q=author%3Apsss%20created%3A2022-01-01..2022-01-31

The following issue should be also included as it was created in the given range:

• Checkout of the default branch fails on Rawhide teemtee/fmf#149

This was previously working for years just fine as the issue was included in the did project tests:

• Support user, org, repo in the github plugin psss/did#373

Any idea what might be wrong with the search?

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[initial-d]

I can reproduce this, and it does not look like a query syntax issue on your side.

The issue endpoint confirms that #149 exists, is a normal issue, was created by psss, and was created inside the requested range:

gh api repos/teemtee/fmf/issues/149 \
  --jq "{number,title,user:.user.login,created_at,pull_request,html_url}"

Result:

{
  "number": 149,
  "title": "Checkout of the default branch fails on Rawhide",
  "user": "psss",
  "created_at": "2022-01-20T10:50:16Z",
  "pull_request": null,
  "html_url": "https://github.com/teemtee/fmf/issues/149"
}

But these searches do not return it for me:

gh api "search/issues?q=repo:teemtee/fmf+author:psss+created:2022-01-20"
gh api "search/issues?q=repo:teemtee/fmf+is:issue+author:psss+created:2022-01-20"
gh api "search/issues?q=repo:teemtee/fmf+is:issue+created:2022-01-20&advanced_search=true"

The response I get has incomplete_results: false, so this does not look like the usual “search timed out and returned partial results” case. It looks more like #149 is missing from the issues search index, while the underlying issue object is still available through the issue endpoint and GraphQL.

A useful workaround for tests that need correctness over search behavior is to avoid Search API for this particular assertion and page through repository issues instead, then filter locally by created_at and author. Just note that since on the list-issues endpoint is based on updates, not creation time, so it cannot directly replace a created: search qualifier.

For GitHub staff/support, the smallest repro seems to be:

# Object exists and matches the expected author/date
gh api repos/teemtee/fmf/issues/149 \
  --jq "{number,user:.user.login,created_at,pull_request}"

# Search misses the same object
gh api "search/issues?q=repo:teemtee/fmf+is:issue+author:psss+created:2022-01-20" \
  --jq "{total_count,incomplete_results,items:[.items[].number]}"

Expected: #149 should be returned.
Actual: total_count is 0 for is:issue, and the broader query only returns #150.

So my read is: likely a stale/missing search index entry for that issue, not an error in your query.

[hohwille]

I can confirm that I also observe several bugs in the search-indexing that goes corrupt or out-of-sync on GitHub leading to inconsistent results in the web UI.
Examples:
https://github.com/devonfw/IDEasy/milestone/48 (result will quickly change in our active project)

But according to my basic school math I see a mismatch of 2 shown issues while 4 are open.
The interesting thing is that there are currently 4 open issues assigned to the milestone. So if they have been found why are only 2 issues displayed? Are 4 entries found in the search index but 2 entries of them are valid and 2 are corrupted and have therefore been ignored?

Stable example that exists for years:
https://github.com/orgs/devonfw/teams?page=1

https://github.com/orgs/devonfw/teams?page=2

The team IDE is not shown.
Now I filter for it and suddenly it is there:

As a developer I know for myself that it can be painful to get search indexing right but something is broken here that should be fixed.

[hohwille]

Any updates?
This is really an annoying bug of the GitHub platform:

https://github.com/devonfw/IDEasy/milestone/47

BTW: If I select issues in the milestone view via checkboxes. What can I do with it?
IMHO nothing - also confusing from UX PoV.