REST Code Search API returns zero results for existing terms in some repositories

[vistar941]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

💬 Feature/Topic Area

API

Body

Since approximately August 29, 2026, the REST Code Search API has been returning zero results for terms that definitely exist in some repositories.

Reproduction

Repository:

https://github.com/vistar941/CustomNavigationTitle

The term CustomNavigationTitle exists in Package.swift, README.md, and other files:

https://github.com/vistar941/CustomNavigationTitle/blob/main/Package.swift

Request:

gh api --method GET search/code \
  -f q='CustomNavigationTitle repo:vistar941/CustomNavigationTitle' \
  -f per_page=3

Actual response:

{
  "total_count": 0,
  "incomplete_results": false,
  "items": []
}

The request returned HTTP 200. It was not rate-limited:

X-RateLimit-Resource: code_search
X-RateLimit-Limit: 10
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 9
X-GitHub-Request-Id: ED9E:3E30C7:AF8C3A:EE1C50:6A93E846
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2026 08:22:30 GMT

Expected result: at least Package.swift and README.md should be returned.

Control query

The API is not failing for every repository. The following request, made seconds later with the same authentication and client, returned seven results:

gh api --method GET search/code \
  -f q='"package main" repo:cli/cli' \
  -f per_page=3

Response summary:

{
  "total_count": 7,
  "incomplete_results": false
}

Its request ID was:

X-GitHub-Request-Id: 85ED:281F75:B400A4:F29365:6A93E850

A single-character query such as a repo:vistar941/CustomNavigationTitle also returns results, while longer terms that definitely exist return zero results.

I have observed the same behavior with multiple other public and private repositories. This was working normally until approximately yesterday.

The GitHub web Code Search interface appears to be affected as well. I added the web-search reproduction details to this related report:

https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/206192#discussioncomment-18204982

Could GitHub please investigate whether some REST Code Search indexes or shards have become inconsistent?

[github-actions[bot]]

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