GitHub, a major platform widely used by developers for code hosting and collaboration, experienced a notable outage on Wednesday. The disruption affected various aspects of the site and its services, stemming from modifications made to the platform’s database infrastructure. These changes were subsequently reversed, and by 8:26 PM ET, GitHub confirmed that all services had been fully restored.
During the outage, many users were met with an error message stating that "no server is currently available to service your request." Alongside this message, users saw a graphic of an irate unicorn. Core functionalities like pull requests, GitHub Pages, Copilot, and the GitHub API were among the services affected.
The situation escalated quickly, with GitHub issuing its first status update at 7:11 PM ET, and reports of issues across key services followed soon after. Downdetector, a website that tracks online service interruptions, recorded over 10,000 user reports within minutes of the initial alert. Meanwhile, NetBlocks, an internet monitoring service, confirmed the global nature of the outage just two minutes later.
GitHub, which has been under Microsoft’s ownership since 2018, has yet to provide a detailed explanation of the incident. Nonetheless, with services now back to normal, the platform remains vigilant in monitoring its systems for any further complications.
