Repository homepage sidebar shows 40 contributors, but the API (including anonymous) returns only 21

[snowykte0426]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

Body

Repository

https://github.com/team-cowork/cowork-server

Problem

The Contributors section in the repository homepage sidebar shows 40 contributors.
However, every authoritative source shows only 21 contributors (including bots and anonymous contributors).
About 19 accounts in the sidebar have no commits in the current history.

Verification

1. Contributors API (anonymous included) returns 21

gh api 'repos/team-cowork/cowork-server/contributors?per_page=100&anon=1' --paginate --jq '.[] | .login // .email' | wc -l
# => 21

The only anonymous entry is our version bump bot (1 commit).

2. Contributors API (linked accounts) returns 20

Copilot, Sean-mn, SeoRace, ZaMan0806, aiden30015, chaeeun-09, claude,
cowork-server-versioning-bot[bot], d1ng1724, dependabot[bot], jihoonwjj,
junjuny0227, jyx-07, kimseongchan0914, minsol1031, pr-gatekeeper-bot[bot],
sandrone-code-review-bot[bot], snowykte0426, themoment-ai-harness-sync[bot],
wwwcomcomcomcom

3. Local history matches the API

git shortlog -sne origin/main and Co-authored-by trailers on the default branch
contain no authors beyond the accounts above.

What I already tried

• Temporarily changed the default branch and then restored it (Settings > General > Default branch), which was reported as a workaround in other discussions. The sidebar still shows 40 contributors after doing this on November 13, 2026.

Expected

The sidebar should show the same contributors as the Contributors API (21).

Request

Since the documented 24-hour refresh window has passed and the default branch workaround did not help, it looks like the sidebar is using stale cached contributor data.
Could a GitHub staff member please refresh or rebuild the contributor data for this repository?
Similar cases were resolved by a manual refresh (e.g. #205703, #205858).

Screenshot of the sidebar is attached below.

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[kaluarachchiteshan]

Hi,

Your checks are thorough, and the default branch workaround you tried is the standard first step. Here is what I would still check, and how to escalate.

1. Check whether old commits are still reachable from other refs

The API counts contributors from the default branch, but the sidebar can draw on the whole repository network. Pull request refs, tags, other branches and forks can all keep old commits and their authors reachable:

git ls-remote origin | grep -v "refs/heads/main"

Look for refs/pull/*, refs/tags/* and other branches. Then fetch them and look for authors that are not in your 21:

git fetch origin '+refs/pull/*:refs/remotes/origin/pr/*' '+refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*' --tags
git log --all --format='%an <%ae>' | sort -u
git log --all --format='%b' | grep -i "co-authored-by" | sort -u

If the extra ~19 accounts show up here, the sidebar is working as designed and counting them from those refs, and the discrepancy is expected behavior, not stale data.

2. Check forks

If the repository has many forks with commits that were later merged back or that share history, authors from the wider network can feed the sidebar. Also check whether the repository was ever renamed, transferred, or rebuilt from another history (for example a squash or an import), since old contributor data can follow the repository.

3. Safe ways to prompt a recalculation

• Push a normal commit to main (no force-push):

git commit --allow-empty -m "chore: refresh repository stats"
git push origin main

• Compare the sidebar while signed out or in a private window to rule out browser caching.
• Wait a day or two after the push before drawing conclusions.

4. Escalation

Community members can't rebuild contributor data, and the discussions you linked were resolved by GitHub staff. To increase the chance of a staff response:

• Open a ticket at https://support.github.com/contact with the repository URL, the sidebar count (40), the API counts (21 including anonymous, 20 linked), the fact that you already switched the default branch and restored it on November 13, 2026, and the git log --all result from step 1.
• Mention the earlier discussions (Contributor graph remains stale after history rewrite #205703 and Repository homepage shows stale Claude contributor, while Insights shows only actual contributors #205858) as similar cases.

Please don't post private details in this thread.