It is not working at all, I can not load any repo pages.
Github.com's promise is that it can be the central broker of open source code because it is reliable.
That promise hasn't been kept recently.
That said, Github is hard to displace and it is similar to the era of the Twitter Fail Whales. It was a sign of growth that couldn't be properly managed but there was not viable alternative.
> Github is hard to displace and it is similar to the era of the Twitter Fail Whales
Hard but not impossible. Being unreliable might nudge a few people. Also, Twitter had their fail whale in their early phase (mostly), not twenty years or so into their existence.
The issue with replacing Github is that it takes more than version control and issue tracking to replace the network that is Github. It's effectively the largest social network for software developers on this planet.
Tangled (tangled.org) is built on the at protocol (bluesky) and seems like an interesting take on this. Most other solutions seem to just move the problem to another much smaller silo (gitlab, codeberg, etc) or throw out the baby with the bathwater by focusing on self hosting without attempt at networking with other instances.
A federated approach seems like it is directionally right. Tangled is far from feature complete but I like the direction and it probably is a bit more resilient against global outages like this. I'm not a user yet but I'm keeping an eye on it.
It's a bit of a different situation though, in many cases the unit of adoption is a team or organization that is free to switch platforms without consideration of what anyone else is doing. At this point I'm going to move my personal projects, it's not bad enough to be a priority at work yet but it's trending that way.
Whatever it is, it seems to be getting worse: started with pull requests and Actions being down, now I can't even list my repos. Might be the worst one yet.
Not sure covid was the sole driving force. A combination of MS taking over and deciding to move it to Azure, a massive increase in traffic due to ai usage (not that this should be an excuse for a platform that should be scaleable), and Github going all in on AI usage to write its own code.
They're making it very easy for a viable alternative to pop up and take their lunch - it just wont be Gitlab.
While it annoys me how things have gone downhill, I think you missing one key detail with regards to competition. It's only "very easy" if you feel like throwing enough money at CI compute to power the majority of the open source ecosystems needs. That would be the bare minimum in order to even have a shot of achieving similar levels of network effects as Github.
I don't have data for it, but I have been a Github user since 2012 and have found it to be down often for pretty much that entire time. I always figured it's cultural to a degree–new features always seem pretty buggy/underbaked, and often continue to long term but remain unloved and incomplete.
I has never been so bad as in the couple last years. And it's getting worse.
I never had to wonder if Steam is going to be working today, so I could play my game after work, but it's been an issue with GitHub since covid. At least for me.
Fortunately, due the nature of the service, I can sit out most downtimes. Most of the time at least.
githubstatus.com has been updated with an incident now:
> Update - We are seeing an approximate 20% error rate across numerous experiences including Pull Requests, Issues, and others. Investigations are currently under way and we will be posting updates as they become available
Aug 17, 2026 - 13:45 UTC
Help encourage alternatives by trying Gitlab.com and Codeberg.org and others, and please star some projects there to help motivate more options.
Self-promo links below if you would like to star a few of mine good for developers.
https://gitlab.com/architecture-decision-record
https://gitlab.com/ways-of-working
https://gitlab.com/coordinated-vulnerability-disclosure
It is not working at all, I can not load any repo pages.
Github.com's promise is that it can be the central broker of open source code because it is reliable.
That promise hasn't been kept recently.
That said, Github is hard to displace and it is similar to the era of the Twitter Fail Whales. It was a sign of growth that couldn't be properly managed but there was not viable alternative.
> Github is hard to displace and it is similar to the era of the Twitter Fail Whales
Hard but not impossible. Being unreliable might nudge a few people. Also, Twitter had their fail whale in their early phase (mostly), not twenty years or so into their existence.
The issue with replacing Github is that it takes more than version control and issue tracking to replace the network that is Github. It's effectively the largest social network for software developers on this planet.
Tangled (tangled.org) is built on the at protocol (bluesky) and seems like an interesting take on this. Most other solutions seem to just move the problem to another much smaller silo (gitlab, codeberg, etc) or throw out the baby with the bathwater by focusing on self hosting without attempt at networking with other instances.
A federated approach seems like it is directionally right. Tangled is far from feature complete but I like the direction and it probably is a bit more resilient against global outages like this. I'm not a user yet but I'm keeping an eye on it.
It's a bit of a different situation though, in many cases the unit of adoption is a team or organization that is free to switch platforms without consideration of what anyone else is doing. At this point I'm going to move my personal projects, it's not bad enough to be a priority at work yet but it's trending that way.
https://mrshu.github.io/github-statuses/
They're struggling to maintain a single nine these days.
Certified eleven nines SLA: 9.9999999999%
Anyone else getting "Cannot retrieve latest commit at this time?"
Yup.
Alright! Let's go make some coffee and get fresh air
Whatever it is, it seems to be getting worse: started with pull requests and Actions being down, now I can't even list my repos. Might be the worst one yet.
I'm seeing "Merge status cannot be loaded" when attempting to merge a PR.
It's a shame I had to go to HN to check if I was the only one instead of relying on their status page that they link.
It's been a downward spiral since covid.
Enterprise works ok-ish, but the standard version has daily issue ever since.
Not sure covid was the sole driving force. A combination of MS taking over and deciding to move it to Azure, a massive increase in traffic due to ai usage (not that this should be an excuse for a platform that should be scaleable), and Github going all in on AI usage to write its own code.
They're making it very easy for a viable alternative to pop up and take their lunch - it just wont be Gitlab.
While it annoys me how things have gone downhill, I think you missing one key detail with regards to competition. It's only "very easy" if you feel like throwing enough money at CI compute to power the majority of the open source ecosystems needs. That would be the bare minimum in order to even have a shot of achieving similar levels of network effects as Github.
I don't have data for it, but I have been a Github user since 2012 and have found it to be down often for pretty much that entire time. I always figured it's cultural to a degree–new features always seem pretty buggy/underbaked, and often continue to long term but remain unloved and incomplete.
I has never been so bad as in the couple last years. And it's getting worse.
I never had to wonder if Steam is going to be working today, so I could play my game after work, but it's been an issue with GitHub since covid. At least for me.
Fortunately, due the nature of the service, I can sit out most downtimes. Most of the time at least.
githubstatus.com has been updated with an incident now:
> Update - We are seeing an approximate 20% error rate across numerous experiences including Pull Requests, Issues, and others. Investigations are currently under way and we will be posting updates as they become available Aug 17, 2026 - 13:45 UTC
It sounds like what I was seeing when trying to view PRs last night, so it started almost 12 hours ago.
experiences, as if we're in disneyland
Did they switch to Azure?
tenth per day, I almost think my network is noet working.
Yep, started with PR changes not being visible, but now can't load entire repos. I see the pink unicorn.
Which AI model is it this time?
India. (AI = actually, Indians)
+1
Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49330684
Yes, in India.
I'm experiencing as well.
yes in Bulgaria
yes in Brazil
clown show
why isnt nyone using the alternatives like gitlawb?