Contributor graph remains stale after history rewrite

[Marcos-A]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Question

Body

Hello,

The contributor graph for https://github.com/Marcos-A/tempo still shows the GitHub user "claude", although the commits that contained this co-author attribution were rewritten out of the repository history more than six weeks ago.

Current published refs contain no Claude/Anthropic co-author attribution:

• branches: main and preview
• tags: v1.0.0, v1.0.1, v1.1.0, v1.2.0
• pull requests: none

The repository’s REST contributors endpoint now returns only Marcos-A, but the web contributor graph still shows "claude".

Examples of the old, now-unreachable commits that GitHub still serves:

• Marcos-A/tempo@10319c9
• Marcos-A/tempo@7fd7739

Is there a way to have GitHub refresh/rebuild the contributor graph and associated repository statistics so that "claude" is no longer listed? If the retained unreachable commits are the cause, please advise whether they can be purged from the repository.

Expected result: only contributors represented by commits reachable from the repository’s current published history should appear in the contributor graph.

Thank you.

https://github.com/Marcos-A/tempo/graphs/contributors?from=5%2F23%2F2026

[Vendetaaaa]

Greetings @Marcos-A

This is an issue from the cached analytics desync on Github's backend

This is on their behalf so either you can wait for the Server-side Garbage Collection or open a Github's support ticket, best of luck

[Marcos-A]

Thank you. My account is currently GitHub Free, so the Support portal does not offer a technical-support ticket. Do you know of a Free-account escalation route for this stale contributor-graph issue?

[Vendetaaaa]

The links for the support are:

https://support.github.com/ : Github Support Portal
https://support.github.com/request : Github Support Request Form

All the best, and good luck!

[Marcos-A]

Thank you for the links. I followed the repository-support flow, selected Insights, and GitHub accepted a support ticket for the stale contributor data. I’ll wait for their response.

[Vendetaaaa]

Praying the issue will be resolved, have a good day man, much love!

[Marcos-A]

Thank you again. Quick update: GitHub accepted the form, but then automatically closed the ticket because my account is GitHub Free, so it was not reviewed by technical support. I’ll keep waiting for the backend refresh/cleanup.

[Vendetaaaa]

Yeah.. Free account apperantly don't matter as much to the support lol. The best solution is to wait at this point.

[ktravers]

👋 Hello @Marcos-A, I've refreshed the list, so it should be up to date now. If you run into this problem again, the advice above is correct. Your best option is to contact GitHub support.

From our docs:

After force-pushing, rewriting history, or deleting commits, repository contributor displays and statistics can take about 24 hours to refresh.

If you're a repository owner and contributor data is still incorrect after waiting about 24 hours, contact GitHub Support. For more information about creating a support ticket, see Creating a support ticket.

[Marcos-A]

Thanks for refreshing the list! I can confirm it's showing correctly now. Appreciate the help and the info on contacting support if it happens again.

[hienvanla5]

Hi @Marcos-A,

This is a known issue caused by cached analytics desynchronization on GitHub’s backend. Even when unreachable commits are stripped from published branches/tags via a history rewrite, GitHub's internal cache for web statistics (like the Contributor Graph) often retains historical author data until a manual or automated cache rebuild occurs.

Here are the primary ways to address and resolve this:

1. Backend Synchronization (Automatic Window)

GitHub’s background workers usually perform scheduled garbage collection and index cache invalidation. However, as noted in GitHub Docs, statistics can take anywhere from 24 hours up to several weeks to update on their own after a force push or commit purge.

2. Request a Manual Cache Refresh via GitHub Support

Because the REST API reflects the correct data (Marcos-A only) while the UI displays stale cached data, the fastest resolution requires an internal cache rebuild by GitHub Support.

• Support Portal: [GitHub Support Portal](https://support.github.com/)
• Category Flow: Select Repositories $\rightarrow$ Insights / Statistics $\rightarrow$ Request Support.
• Details to Include: Specify that you performed a history rewrite, the REST API returns the correct contributors, but the Web UI Contributor Graph is out of sync due to stale cached stats.

Note for Free Accounts: If an automated ticket closure occurs due to plan tier routing, posting directly in GitHub Community Discussions under the Insights / Analytics category (as you have done here) allows GitHub Staff or Community Managers to periodically trigger a manual list refresh on the backend.

3. Purging Unreachable Commits (Garbage Collection)

If GitHub still holds onto the detached commit hashes (e.g., 10319c9), you can force local and remote reference cleanup:

• Run local GC: git reflog expire --expire=now --all && git gc --prune=now --aggressive
• Force-push all clean refs.
• The remaining unreachable object cleanup on GitHub's remote servers will complete once their server-side GC cycle runs.

---

Expected Outcome: Once GitHub Staff triggers a manual stats refresh or the backend GC completes, the Contributor Graph will update to reflect only the reachable commits (Marcos-A).

Hope this helps! Let us know if the graph updates after submitting the support request.

[Marcos-A]

Thank you for the detailed explanation and guidance. A GitHub Community Manager has now refreshed the contributor list, and the issue is resolved. I really appreciate your help.

[Afsharidevops]

I have the same issue.

Repository:
https://github.com/Afsharidevops/hermes-control-plane

I removed all Claude-authored commits and rewrote the Git history about 20 days ago.

Verification:

$ git log --all --format='%h %an <%ae>' | grep -i claude
(no results)

$ gh api repos/Afsharidevops/hermes-control-plane/commits --paginate
--jq '.[] | select(.commit.author.name | test("claude"; "i"))'
(no results)

$ gh api repos/Afsharidevops/hermes-control-plane/stats/contributors

Returns only:
Afsharidevops

The GitHub API is correct, but Insights → Contributors graph still shows the old "claude" contributor.

Could GitHub refresh/rebuild the contributor graph cache for this repository?

Thank you.

[Marcos-A]

The problem was solved after a GitHub Community Manager refreshed the contributor list. If you can submit a support request explaining the issue, they can totally solve it.

Hope that helps, best of luck!

[stm32f303ret6]

Same problem here

repo: https://github.com/stm32f303ret6/electron_thruster

The GitHub API is correct, but Claude contributor is still there

Thanks in advance