Contributors disappeared after leaving a fork network

[htnabe]

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Question

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Body

Hello,

I have an issue with the Contributors graph of the following repository:

https://github.com/htnabe/prettier-plugin-go-template

This repository was originally a fork of another repository. I later changed the default branch from master to main and then used "Leave fork network" to make it an independent repository.

After leaving the fork network, the Contributors information disappeared from the repository.

However, the Git history still contains all of the original contributors' commits. For example, running:

git shortlog -sne main

shows contributors including:

• Niklas Portmann — 105 commits
• Niklas — 48 commits
• and others

The repository's default branch is currently main, and these commits are still present in its history.

I have several questions:

1. Is it expected behavior for the Contributors graph to become empty after leaving a fork network?
2. Is there a way to have GitHub recalculate the Contributors information for this now-independent repository?
3. If this is not expected behavior, are there ways to restore or recalculate the Contributors information?

I have not modified or rewritten the existing commit history.

Thank you for your help.

[Dani-8]

Yes, this is a known quirk when breaking away from a fork network. When you leave a fork network, GitHub's background worker cache for repository statistics (like the contributors graph) can occasionally get stuck or fail to automatically re-index commit author mappings, especially if the commits were made under the old default branch (master) before renaming to main.

Since your git shortlog proves the commit history and author emails are intact, you can usually force GitHub to rebuild the graph and re-index the contributors using these steps:

1. Verify Commit Emails: Ensure the commit author emails in your local history match the primary or secondary email addresses tied to the respective GitHub accounts. If commits were made with a local Git config email that doesn't match the users' GitHub accounts, the graph won't map them.
2. Trigger a Background Re-index: You can force GitHub's backend to re-evaluate the repository metrics by pushing a new, clean commit or a dummy update to the default branch (main).

   git commit --allow-empty -m "Trigger stats re-index"
   git push origin main

[krif014]

Hi @htnabe , the behavior is worth checking, because GitHub's documentation says that leaving a fork network preserves the Git commit metadata, and commits can become eligible to be counted as contributions after the repository becomes standalone.

A couple of things I'd verify before trying to trigger a rebuild:

• The repository is now actually standalone and main is the default branch.
• The commits are still reachable from main.
• The original author email addresses are associated with the corresponding GitHub accounts.
• The repository has fewer than 10,000 commits, since some contributor insights have that limitation.
• Check the Contributors graph after allowing around 24 hours for the repository statistics to refresh.

GitHub specifically documents that contributor data can take about 24 hours to refresh after history changes, and recommends contacting Support if it is still incorrect afterward.

I wouldn't create an empty commit just to force a re-index unless GitHub Support recommends it — I couldn't find that as an official GitHub procedure.

[kit1211]

Hi @htnabe

Contributors graph disappearing after leaving a fork network is a known cache reindex issue. GitHub treats the repo history as rewritten when fork relationship breaks.

Steps:

1. Confirm all contributor commits still exist on main:
   git log --format="%an <%ae>" | sort -u

2. Ensure default branch is main and contains full history from fork period.

3. Wait 7 days. Contributor stats reindex asynchronously after network detachment.

4. Check Insights, Contributors tab directly, not only sidebar widget.

5. If still empty after 7 days, open Support with repo URL prettier-plugin-go-template. Explain: left fork network, changed default branch master to main, contributors graph empty. Request contributor stat reindex.

6. Optional .mailmap file if author names changed between fork and independent repo.

The commits still exist. The graph cache needs rebuild. Support can trigger reindex if 7 day wait fails.