GitHub outage worldwide: API, pull requests and Copilot hit as error rates spike
What failed and when
GitHub suffered a global service disruption on Monday, August 17, beginning around 13:40 UTC (6:40 a.m. PT), according to timelines reported by BetaNews and The Register. BetaNews wrote that GitHub initially said it was investigating performance problems, before confirming broader issues across multiple components. The Register similarly placed the start of the incident at 13:40 UTC. GeekWire placed the start at 6:40 a.m. Pacific, aligning with those reports.
Across the morning, publishers relayed the company’s own status updates describing widespread degradation. BleepingComputer reported that developers encountered errors across the website, API Requests, Actions, Webhooks, Issues and Pull Requests, with Copilot later added to the list of impacted services. Engadget and Tech Edition likewise noted problems with API activity, pull requests, webhooks and Copilot.
Who was affected and at what scale
GeekWire described GitHub as a Microsoft‑owned platform with 225 million users and said the outage disrupted development work around the world. BetaNews also characterized the event as a massive worldwide incident. While those outlets did not quantify user counts during the disruption, several publishers relayed the platform’s snapshot metrics from its status page.
BetaNews reported that at 14:04 UTC GitHub cited roughly 20% error rates for web and API traffic, with archive and raw repository downloads failing about 50% of the time. Hindustan Times and Engadget echoed that snapshot later in the U.S. morning, noting that around 11:42 a.m. ET GitHub said it was performing mitigations while reporting the same 20% and 50% figures. The Register highlighted the 50% failure rate for repository content downloads. BleepingComputer added that some users saw server errors loading commits, repositories and pull request pages during the incident window. Enterprise customers also felt the impact: both BleepingComputer and BetaNews said SAML and OIDC authentication, SCIM and Team Sync were affected.
What GitHub and Microsoft said during recovery
Publishers relayed a sequence of status‑page updates through the morning and early afternoon. BetaNews reported that at 16:36 UTC Microsoft said it had identified a problematic component and taken corrective actions, noting signs of recovery while acknowledging that error rates remained elevated. Shortly afterward, BetaNews wrote that Microsoft said degradation affecting API Requests, Actions, Git Operations, Issues, Pages, Pull Requests and Webhooks had been mitigated and that teams were monitoring for stability.
From the U.S. West Coast, GeekWire reported that GitHub said it found the source of the problem shortly after 9:30 a.m. PT and had the outage under control by about 10:00 a.m. PT, with services recovering. GeekWire added that Copilot remained listed as an active incident while the company continued to monitor overall stability. BleepingComputer placed Copilot’s degraded availability at 10:31 a.m. ET. BleepingComputer also noted that Git Operations, Packages, Pages and Codespaces were shown as operational while several other parts of the platform remained degraded. None of these updates asserted that restoration was complete.
Cause and outstanding questions
As of the publication times cited by the outlets, GitHub had not disclosed a root cause for the outage. GeekWire said the company had not detailed the source or cause of the issue as of its report, and BleepingComputer and Tech Edition likewise said the investigation was ongoing and the cause remained unclear. CyberSecurityNews also wrote that the root cause had not been publicly disclosed. Where figures were published, they were snapshots taken from the status page at specific times; the 20% and 50% error rates, for example, were reported as point‑in‑time measurements rather than final totals. If GitHub provides a post‑incident analysis, it may clarify whether one component failure or a broader chain of dependencies triggered Monday’s disruption; until then, the cause remains unconfirmed in public reporting.
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Sources
- GeekWire: GitHub outage disrupts developers worldwide in latest setback for Microsoft coding platform
- BetaNews: Microsoft confirms massive global GitHub outage
- CyberSecurityNews: GitHub Outage Disrupts Developers Worldwide Amid Ongoing Investigation
- Tech Edition: GitHub suffers widespread outage affecting API, pull requests and Copilot
- Hindustan Times: GitHub outage cause: Developer platform reports ‘high error rates’ and API problems; Microsoft says ‘we are currently…’ | World News
- Engadget: GitHub has been down for most of the morning
- BleepingComputer: Microsoft confirms GitHub is down worldwide
- The Register: GitHub has Issues as repo downloads hit 50% error rate
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