Pull Shark achievement not unlocking after multiple merged PRs

[guilherme-lapa]

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Question

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Pull Shark achievement not unlocking

Hello GitHub Community,

My Pull Shark achievement is not appearing on my profile, despite having multiple successfully merged pull requests.

I first attempted to unlock it approximately one week ago, but it never appeared.

On November 6, 2026, I created and merged two additional pull requests into the main branch of my public repository.

GitHub username: guilherme-lapa

Repository: https://github.com/guilherme-lapa/github-achievements

Merged pull requests:

• https://github.com/guilherme-lapa/github-achievements/pull/1
• https://github.com/guilherme-lapa/github-achievements/pull/2

Both pull requests show the "Merged" status, but the achievement is still missing from my profile.

Is there a known issue affecting Pull Shark achievements, or are there additional eligibility requirements I should check?

Any guidance would be appreciated. Thank you!

[TheusLazaro]

Hey! Your PRs look fine. Merging your own pull requests into your own repo does count for Pull Shark, so that’s not the problem.

Here’s what I’d check, in this order:

Give it some time. You merged both PRs today (Nov 6). Achievements aren’t instant. They’re processed in the background and can take anywhere from a few hours to a couple of days to show up. That’s the most likely reason.
Check that achievements are visible on your profile. Go to Settings → Public profile → Contributions & activity and make sure “Show Achievements on my profile” is checked. If it’s off, you could have earned the badge and still not see it.
Check your commit email. GitHub doesn’t count commits tied to an unverified email. Open one of the PR commits and see if it’s linked to your avatar/username. If it isn’t, add and verify that email under Settings → Emails.
Make sure the PRs were actually merged and not just closed. From what you described this is fine, but it’s worth a quick look, since “Closed” (red) doesn’t count and only “Merged” (purple) does.

If everything above checks out and it still hasn’t appeared after 2 or 3 days, open a ticket at support.github.com, because at that point it’s a problem on their side and nobody in the community can fix it for you.

Hope it shows up soon! 🦈

[100rootrain]

Your two PRs look valid. Both were merged into main (the default branch) of a public, non-fork repo, and merging your own PRs does count.

One thing to add on timing: I'd expect more like a week right now, not a couple of days. There's an ongoing achievement-processing delay tracked in #203416, and GitHub staff confirmed in the September 23 update that some achievements are taking several days to appear. My own Pair Extraordinaire tier upgrade showed up about 7 days after the qualifying PR was merged, and others in that thread have reported similar waits.

Your PRs were merged at 03:20 and 03:25 UTC on Nov 6, and this discussion was opened at 03:41 UTC, only about 15 minutes later. So I'd give it until around November 13 before assuming something is wrong.

About the earlier attempt a week ago: I couldn't find any other merged PRs of yours in public repos. If they were in a private repo, make sure "Include private contributions on my profile" is enabled as well. If that repo has since been deleted, those PRs probably won't be counted, so today's two are the ones to watch.

If Pull Shark still hasn't appeared after Nov 13, I'd add your details to #203416, since that's the thread staff are monitoring. A few people in other threads have had Support tickets closed with a redirect to Community, so posting there is probably the faster route.

[marprojector]

Hello,

Pull Shark achievements are generally awarded based on merged pull requests, but they may not appear on your profile immediately.

Since both pull requests have been successfully merged into the main branch of a public repository, I would suggest giving GitHub some additional time to update your achievements.

You can also try checking your profile again later or refreshing the page while logged in.

If the achievement still doesn't appear after some time, it may be worth contacting GitHub Support to investigate whether there is an issue with the achievement tracking system.

Hopefully, this gets resolved soon. Good luck!

[ma931816]

Hi @guilherme-lapa,

Don't worry—your PRs are merged, but the Pull Shark badge hasn't appeared yet due to how GitHub computes profile achievements. Here are the main reasons why this happens and how to fix it:

1. Check Contribution Graph Inclusion Settings

GitHub Achievements (like Pull Shark) rely on the same calculation engine as your contribution graph. If your commits/PRs aren't counting toward your profile contributions, the badge won't trigger.

• Email Verification: Ensure the email address used to author the commits in PR Welcome to GitHub product feedback #1 and PR Feature Request: Select a column when adding an issue to a project #2 is added and verified in your https://github.com/settings/emails.
• Private vs. Public Toggle: If you recently changed repository visibility or contribution settings, check your profile settings to ensure "Include private contributions on my profile" or general activity tracking is enabled.

2. Forked vs. Original Repositories

If github-achievements is a fork of another repository, PRs merged back into your own fork will not count toward achievements or profile contributions.

• To trigger Pull Shark on a fork, the PR must be opened against and merged into the upstream base repository (the original project).
• If github-achievements is a standalone repository created directly under your account, this requirement is satisfied.

3. Achievement Indexing Sync Delay

GitHub uses asynchronous background jobs to update user profile badges.

• During peak activity periods, achievements can take 24 to 48 hours to index and reflect on your public profile card after merging PRs.
• Ensure achievements are not hidden in your profile settings under Settings > Profile > Display achievements on my profile.

What to Do Next

1. Run git log on your local branch to double-check that your commit email matches your registered GitHub email.
2. If your repository is not a fork and your email is verified, wait up to 48 hours for GitHub's cache to sync your profile.
3. If it still doesn't appear after 48 hours, reach out to https://support.github.com/contact to trigger a manual contribution graph resync for your account.