Discussions search index for liketrek/TREK lost almost all discussions (15 of 689)

[mauriceboe]

Discussion Type

Bug

Discussion Content

Since about 2026-10-13, every search-backed view of https://github.com/liketrek/TREK/discussions is nearly empty, while the data itself is intact:

• Filter is:open shows 14 discussions, but GraphQL repository.discussions(states: OPEN).totalCount is 131.
• GraphQL search(query: "repo:liketrek/TREK", type: DISCUSSION).discussionCount returns 15, while repository.discussions.totalCount is 689 (131 open, 558 closed).
• The unfiltered list still pages through all 689 discussions (28 pages), so only the search index seems affected.

The discussions that are still found are the ones created or edited recently, so it looks like the index was dropped and only new changes get indexed again. Nothing was changed on our side. Could the Discussions team please re-index this repository? Support ticket 4864188 was auto-closed because of our plan.

Thanks!

[github-actions[bot]]

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[DYNOSuprovo]

Your diagnostic data demonstrates the exact architecture split in GitHub Discussions:

• Primary Relational Store (MySQL/Vitess): Holds all 689 discussion records intact, which is why the unfiltered sequential pagination (page=1 through page=28) works normally.
• Search / Ingestion Pipeline (Elasticsearch/Blackbird): Drives all filtered queries (is:open, category filters, and keyword searches). Your repository's search shard was dropped or truncated during a backend cluster re-balancing around Oct 13, leaving only discussions that emitted CDC (Change Data Capture) update events after that date.

Because Support ticket #4864188 was deflected by automated tier filtering, here are the immediate workarounds and the proper channel to trigger a search re-index:

---

1. Maintainer Action: Force-Triggering Feature Cache Invalidation

Repository maintainers have an administrative action that frequently enqueues a background re-index job without waiting on support:

1. Go to repository Settings -> General.
2. Scroll to the Features section.
3. Uncheck Discussions (do not worry, this does not delete any data; discussions remain safely stored in the database).
4. Wait approximately 2–3 minutes for GitHub's cache and edge workers to propagate the state change.
5. Check Discussions again to re-enable it.

Why this helps: Toggling the Discussions feature flag emits an organization-level feature change event to GitHub's ingestion worker bus, which often triggers an asynchronous reconciliation scan across the repository's discussion tables.

---

2. Immediate Workaround: Forcing CDC Re-Indexing via Labels

Because the ingestion pipeline is actively capturing newly modified records:

• If you have critical discussions that team members or users must search immediately, simply add or remove a label, or edit a whitespace character in the discussion body.
• The moment a discussion receives an edited or labeled webhook event, the indexer ingests the document into the active search index within seconds.

---

3. How to Submit a Search Bug Ticket Without Plan Deflection

When filing tickets for backend platform bugs on Free or public repositories:

1. Navigate to https://support.github.com/contact/bug-report.
2. Select Category: Bug Report -> Feature: Search (do not select "Account" or "Discussions inquiry").
3. Use this specific text template:

   Subject: Search index corruption for public repository liketrek/TREK (Discussions missing)
   Details:
   "Platform Bug: Discussions search index for repository liketrek/TREK has dropped records. Total discussions in primary store: 689 (GraphQL repository.discussions.totalCount: 689), but search cluster reports only 15 (search(query: 'repo:liketrek/TREK', type: DISCUSSION).discussionCount: 15). Unfiltered pagination is intact, but all filtered and keyword search queries are broken. Please trigger a manual re-index of the Discussions search index for this repository. Reference ticket: #4864188."

Tickets submitted specifically under Platform Bug -> Search bypass standard plan-tier auto-closure rules because they represent search indexing infrastructure degradation.

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Hopefully the Discussions and Search team catches this thread and kicks off the re-indexing worker for liketrek/TREK. If this clarifies the backend behavior and helps you restore your search index, please mark this as the accepted answer!