Repository homepage displays ghost contributor despite corrected Git history and failed refresh workarounds

[DavidGhedini]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

Body

Bug: Repository homepage displays ghost contributor despite corrected Git history and failed refresh workarounds

Repository: https://github.com/AcuGIS/acugis-report-server-ce

Description

The repository homepage continues to display cursoragent (Cursor Agent) as a contributor, even though its co-author attribution was removed from Git history.

The Contributors REST API and Insights → Contributors graph both correctly list only my account, DavidGhedini.

The issue is isolated to the repository homepage's Contributors sidebar.

Steps already taken

1. Removed all Co-authored-by: Cursor <cursoragent@cursor.com> trailers from Git history.
2. Force-pushed the corrected history.
3. Verified that the Contributors REST API lists only DavidGhedini.
4. Verified that Insights → Contributors does not display Cursor.
5. Waited more than 24 hours.
6. Switched the default branch away from main and back.
7. Pushed additional commits to trigger a refresh.

None of these steps corrected the repository homepage.

Expected behavior

The repository homepage should display the same contributors as the Contributors REST API and Insights graph.

Actual behavior

The homepage continues to display cursoragent, despite the account no longer appearing in the corrected contributor statistics.

Related reports

• Stale contributor remains in repository sidebar after author email correction #212550 — Same issue involving a ghost contributor after rewriting Git history.
• Stale co-author remains in repository sidebar contributors after force-push (>48h, Insights already correct) #204093 — Reports of stale repository homepage contributors.
• Claude still showing in Contributors list after removing it from Git history #212504 and Contributor statistics not updating after Git history rewrite #212340 — Related cases where switching default branches reportedly resolved the issue.

Support response

I contacted GitHub Support, but the ticket was closed with instructions to use self-service community resources.

Request

Could GitHub engineering investigate why the repository homepage Contributors sidebar is not refreshed after contributor attribution changes?

Is there a way to force a server-side recalculation of the homepage contributor list?

This appears to be a reproducible issue affecting multiple unrelated repositories, and the existing community workarounds are not consistently effective.

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[100rootrain]

I checked the repository's current state, and it looks like your latest switch is partly working.

What the homepage sidebar reports right now. At 21:54 UTC, the default branch is temporary-default (created at 21:39). The homepage's Contributors data (/_sidebar) lists only DavidGhedini, with no cursoragent. Its contributorCount still says 3, though. So the list appears to have been recalculated after the switch, while the count is lagging behind. Unless you checked after 21:39, the switch to temporary-default probably refreshed the list.

Where cursoragent came from, and that nothing references it now. One correction to the usual check, first. The Contributors REST API only counts commit authors, not Co-authored-by trailers, so it can't confirm the trailer is gone. I checked the commit messages directly instead:

• The trailer was on 22fcca73 ("Initial AcuGIS Report Server CE release", Nov 3). That's the root commit of the new history that the Nov 3 force push put on main.
• Your Nov 8 force push (12:41 UTC) replaced that history. Today, all 20 commits on main and temporary-default are authored by you, with no Co-authored-by trailers.
• The repo has no pull requests, so there are no refs/pull/* refs that could still hold the old commits.
• The tag 3.0.1 points into your original history from before Nov 3 (152 commits, no common ancestor with main). It has no Cursor trailer, but it includes 2 commits by kaloyan13. If kaloyan13 shows up in the sidebar later, that's why. It's legitimate, and you'd only lose it by deleting the tag.

What I'd do next:

1. Switch the default branch back to main (Settings → General). Both branches point to the same commit (4e7de17e), so the result should be the same list.
2. Open the repository homepage, wait a few minutes, and check again. If the list still shows only you, delete temporary-default.
3. If cursoragent comes back, or the count stays at 3 after a day, the cache really is stuck on GitHub's side. In that case, reopen the Support ticket with the specific request and evidence that the previous reply already outlined. You can add that the sidebar list and its count disagreed with each other (1 listed, contributorCount: 3). That's hard to explain as anything other than a stale server-side cache.

[DavidGhedini]

Thanks!