Pair Extraordinaire stuck at tier 1 despite many co-authored merged PRs

[Juan-Miguel-alvarado]

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Hi everyone,

My account (@Juan-Miguel-alvarado) unlocked Pair Extraordinaire on 2026-06-09, but it has never progressed past the first tier, even though I have well over 10 merged pull requests with co-authored commits since then.

What I've checked:

Commits are authored with my verified primary email (I also tried my noreply address), and they show up as linked to my account.
Each commit includes a valid Co-authored-by: trailer (co-authors include @claude and other GitHub users).
The PRs are merged into the default branch, not forks. Some were merged by me and others by the repository owner.
The commits count on my contribution graph, so attribution works.
It's been more than 24 hours.
For comparison, other users with the same workflow (own commits + Co-authored-by: Claude, merged PRs) get the next tier within seconds. Other achievements on my account (Galaxy Brain, Starstruck) update normally.

Has anyone seen Pair Extraordinaire get stuck like this? Is there anything else that affects how co-authored PRs are counted? Any help, or a GitHub staff member taking a look, would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[Demerdashh]

Pair Extraordinaire tiers track merged pull requests where at least one merged commit has a valid human co-author, but bot accounts and PR authorship structure frequently trip up tier progression.

1. Verify your co-authors are human accounts:

• Tier calculations periodically filter out automated app accounts, bots, or unverified emails. If most of your co-authors were AI tools like @claude or service accounts, GitHub's achievement worker may disqualify those commits. Test a merge with a real, verified human user's primary GitHub email in the Co-authored-by: line.

2. Check PR author vs. commit author:

• If you authored the commit and opened the PR, you are technically co-authoring with yourself on your own PR. The counter reliably triggers when:
• Someone else opens the PR, and you are added via Co-authored-by: on an included commit.
• You open the PR, but someone else authors a commit with you co-authored.

3. Check squash merges:

• If a PR was squash-merged, ensure the repository's squash commit message template did not strip the Co-authored-by: trailer from the final merge commit on the default branch.

4. Trigger a recalculation or contact support:

• Push a trivial or empty commit to the default branch of one of the active repos to trigger a background graph recalculation.
• If tiers still stay frozen after testing with a verified human co-author on a non-squashed PR, reach out to GitHub Support under Account -> Achievements so an engineer can rerun the badge aggregation job for your handle.

[4ynow]

Hi @Juan-Miguel-alvarado,
Your contribution graph is updating perfectly so your formatting and email setup are all correct. The reason your badge is still stuck at Tier 1 is probably one of two backend oddities:

1. Bot Filtering on Higher Tiers

Some platforms filter out bots more strictly at higher subscription levels, which can result in more reliable user data. This means when you pay for a top-tier plan, your analytics may better reflect real people’s behavior. However, this stricter filtering can also reduce the total number of recorded visits, making your traffic look lower than on less expensive plans.

GitHub's achievement system deals with the initial unlock differently to the way it deals with the progression tiers (Bronze at 10, Silver at 24, Gold at 48).
• To prevent automated farming the tier calculation script will frequently filter out non-human/app accounts (such as @claude).
• Even if a few of your users saw it update quite rapidly, the backend filters are constantly changing. If a significant proportion of your 10+ PRs are relying on an AI co-author then the tier counter is effectively going to rule them out. Try merging a PR that has been co-authored via a standard human GitHub account to see if it updates.

2. Achievement Job Desync

If you already have 10+ merged PRs with human co-authors and it's still stuck then your account is in a background job desync. Occasionally the script for one badge will get stuck on a single profile whilst the others will continue to update as normal.

[Juan-Miguel-alvarado]

Thanks @Demerdashh and @4ynow for the suggestions. I tested them today (2026-10-28), and the badge is still at tier 1 for now:

PRs	Repo owner	Commit author	PR opened by	Merged by	Merge type	Co-author
5	my friend	me	me	my friend	squash (trailer kept)	Claude
5	my friend	my friend	my friend	my friend	merge commit	me (human, noreply email)
10	me	my friend	my friend	my friend	merge commit	me (human, noreply email)

So now I've covered:

• human co-authors only, with no bots or AI;
• someone else opening the PR with me added through Co-authored-by:;
• merge commits instead of squash, plus squash commits that I checked still have the trailer;
• a repository owned by another user, which is the exact setup of my original tier-1 unlock.

Every commit shows as linked to my account. I'll wait a few days in case processing is slow. If nothing changes, the tier counter for my account seems stuck, and I'd really appreciate it if a GitHub staff member could re-run the achievement job for @Juan-Miguel-alvarado.