GitHub profile navigation bar behaves incorrectly when scrolling

[codewithashishKumar]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Issues

Body

The navigation bar on a GitHub user profile's repositories page does not behave consistently while scrolling through the page. The navigation/header positioning changes as the page is scrolled, which makes the navigation experience feel inconsistent.

Steps to reproduce:

Open a GitHub user profile from a incognito mode.
Go to the Repositories tab.
Scroll down through the repository list.
Observe the profile navigation/header area while scrolling.

Expected behavior:
The navigation should maintain consistent positioning and styling while scrolling.

Actual behavior:
The navigation/header position and appearance change during scrolling, resulting in an inconsistent UI experience.

Video Attached -
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/324330cb-87af-4b18-b275-7f5769bedc10

Guidelines

• I have read the above statement and can confirm my post is relevant to the GitHub feature areas Issues and/or Projects.

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[sethumadhavan505]

Hi @codewithashishKumar,

One additional thing worth checking is whether this is related to the profile navigation switching between different sticky/fixed positioning states at certain scroll positions or viewport widths.

You could try reproducing it at a few different browser widths (for example, desktop, tablet, and a narrow window) and note the exact scroll position where the navigation changes.

If the behavior consistently changes at a particular breakpoint, that could help distinguish a responsive-layout issue from a general scrolling/rendering problem.

It may also be useful to compare:

• normal scrolling vs. rapid scrolling
• mouse wheel vs. trackpad scrolling
• different zoom levels (100%, 125%, etc.)

If the issue occurs consistently across these conditions, that would provide GitHub's UI team with more specific information for investigating the navigation's positioning behavior.

If this helps you identify or resolve the issue, please consider marking my answer as the accepted answer. It would help others who face the same problem find the solution more easily. 👍

[codewithashishKumar]

Thanks for the suggestion. I checked this on desktop at various viewport widths and different scroll positions.

The behavior seems to occur specifically on the profile image/navigation area. I also checked my profile page here: https://github.com/codewithashishKumar?tab=repositories, and the image behaves properly during all types of scrolling (smooth, normal, and fast).

The class used on the image is .avatar-user, so based on these observations, I suspect this may be related to a z-index/stacking issue while scrolling rather than a general scrolling or responsive-layout issue.

Hopefully this additional information helps narrow down the cause.