Repository homepage still lists google-labs-jules[bot] as a contributor after history rewrite

[vijaypagolu2007]

Introduce yourself

Hi everyone,

My repository homepage still shows google-labs-jules[bot] in the Contributors sidebar, even though I rewrote the Git history to correct that attribution several days ago.

What I've done:

1. Rewrote the history with git-filter-repo to change the bot's author/committer attribution.
2. Force-pushed the rewritten history to main.
3. Fetched origin/main and confirmed that searching the history for "google-labs-jules" returns nothing. origin/main is the only remote branch.
4. Checked Insights > Contributors. The bot no longer appears there.

The homepage Contributors section still lists the bot. Screenshots of both pages are attached.

Links (optional)

No response

Where are you in your GitHub journey?

Brand new to GitHub

And where are you going next on GitHub?

What technical skills or projects are you working on?

I opened a support ticket (#4881842), but it was redirected here because my account is on the free plan.

Thanks for any help!

Got a question for us? (optional)

• Is the homepage contributor list cached or calculated separately from Insights > Contributors?
• Could old pull request refs (refs/pull/*) or other hidden refs still be keeping the bot's commits counted, and if so, how can they be cleared?
• Is there a way to trigger a recalculation without deleting and recreating the repository? I need to keep its history, settings, and project data.

[RolandJL]

Hi

The presence of ghost contributors on your repository homepage is just a classic case of background cache lag. While your Insights graph updates pretty quickly after a force-push, that main landing page sidebar uses a completely separate database that caches data across the entire repository network. That is why a bot profile can stick around on your front page even after you have wiped it from your active branch history.

Hidden links from old pull requests are usually what keeps those deleted commits alive behind the scenes. Even though your local cleanup tools fixed the main timeline, GitHub's internal logs keep a permanent record of automated actions and pull request branches. Since these hidden references stay tied to your repository's metadata, the system keeps counting the bot as a contributor.

To fix this visual glitch without losing your project boards or repository settings, you just need to force the system to rebuild its cache. Pushing a quick empty commit or temporarily flipping your default branch back and forth will usually wake up the indexing engine. If the bot is still showing up after a couple of days, making a fresh mirror clone of your history is the ultimate way to get a completely blank sidebar.

With regards,