Ask HN: Is GitHub preparing to go behind a login wall?

From time to time, I check that our open-source project is still available to all users, and I've occasionally noticed that the stargazers (1) information returns a 404 for non-logged-in users.

I assume they're preparing to follow the LinkedIn model by making access available to registered users only.

Have you noticed that GitHub has started blocking access to certain functions/pages for users without an account?

1. https://github.com/tirrenotechnologies/tirreno/stargazers

25 points | by reconnecting 1 hour ago

15 comments

  • dieselgate 1 hour ago
    I don't have an immediate direct source but read yesterday GitHub stars are being "obfuscated" because they're being scraped to spam popular projects -- or something similar.

    Edit found the link [0], do not believe it mentions reason but links github blog

    From Github [1]: > These endpoints and views currently expose public lists of stargazers and watchers, and this information has increasingly been misused to collect user data for spam activities which negatively impacts user experience and platform trust.

    [0]: https://www.star-history.com/blog/github-stargazer-api-restr...

    [1] https://github.blog/changelog/2026-06-30-upcoming-access-res...

  • Fordec 1 hour ago
    Fine for my closed source stuff, but my open source work is specifically meant to be viewable, even by non-technical people doing recruitment or looking over my portfolio.

    I've put up with a lot of stuff, but this would be my personal last straw.

  • snailmailman 46 minutes ago
    I think it’s been functionally login-only for a while, unfortunately.

    Any time I try to use the site while logged out I immediately hit all sorts of rate limits and spam prevention measures. Issues and pull requests stop loading almost immediately. Searches are extremely restricted, like i think literally one search is all you get sometimes unless you login.

    It’s hard to tell how much of this is intentional and how much is GitHub infra not being stable. My daily renovate bot that looks for updates for specific packages times out and encounters errors almost every time it runs and it’s barely doing anything. And it has an api key. I know I’m not hitting limits, some queries just don’t work >50% of the time on some repos.

  • fodkodrasz 1 hour ago
    The whole GitHub infra is cracking under the AI-boom's increased load. This can very well be just another symptom of the same thing.
    [-]
    • munk-a 30 minutes ago
      Don't buy the BS about them being overwhelmed by AI code when they've also had terrible vibe-coded feature rollouts repeatedly break the site and are trying to rapidly increase their feature surface to kill off competing test runners and review managers. Maybe github, if well managed, would struggle in the current day - but it simply isn't.
  • BorisMelnik 54 minutes ago
    I think this would push even more small to medium sized busineses towards self hosting which I would love to see
  • KomoD 24 minutes ago
    I can't even access that link with an account.
  • pixelesque 1 hour ago
    Advanced Search doesn't work unless you're logged in, but it's been like that for at least a year.
    [-]
  • IronWolve 1 hour ago
    With AI and all the new projects/forks/updates, github is one busy place.

    I wasn't browsing /trending on github until I started using AI, wanting to see what cool projects people are working on.

  • bitbasher 1 hour ago
    I believe so. I cannot view any repository from my phone. It asks me to log in first.
  • toomuchtodo 1 hour ago
    Hard to say, the only people who know are those internal to MS and GH and know, or who have told others. You have copies of your repos in other systems, yeah? Have a plan you don't need rather than need a plan you don't have.

    Ask HN: What alternatives to GitHub are you using? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44876289 - August 2025 (97 comments)

    [-]
    • reconnecting 1 hour ago
      Codeberg constantly returns this just because I use an outdated Safari: 'If you are an AI scraper and wish to not receive garbage when visiting Codeberg: stop visiting. If you are not an AI scraper: contact Codeberg.'
      [-]
      • toomuchtodo 1 hour ago
        Perhaps https://tangled.sh/ or a https://forgejo.org/ instance is an option?
        [-]
        • reconnecting 1 hour ago
          The question is rather whether GitHub is no longer an option, or will stop being one soon.
          [-]
          • toomuchtodo 1 hour ago
            One should always assume a vendor could vanish at any time, or your access to your data at the vendor. To assume this is a cheap mitigation against potential sadness.

            At a minimum, you should be keeping hot copies of all contents of your repos currently hosted at Github, code, issues, etc. This could be in another svn system, or archive blobs in object storage you have full control over and can hydrate as needed into operating svn systems.

            (risk management is my day gig)

  • ocdtrekkie 38 minutes ago
    GitHub specifically put out a changelog about the stargazers API endpoint to restrict open access because of its use for spam and abuse. I believe this is more about user data than code. Obviously restricting public access to Git would be a different tier.
  • panny 41 minutes ago
    AI ruined everything. They have to protect "their" code.
  • bearjaws 1 hour ago
    Looking at how much work GitLab has to do due to abuse of being open, I don't blame anyone for wanting to make that change.
  • BorisMelnik 55 minutes ago
    that is github.com you are referring to, would pulling public repos the curl -fsSL way need to be authenticated?
  • jsnell 1 hour ago
    Just to nitpick, requiring a free account is substantially different from a paywall.
    [-]
    • reconnecting 1 hour ago
      Agreed, changed paywall to a login wall instead.