GitHub Outage Hits API, Actions, Pull Requests, and Copilot - No Cause Given
Microsoft confirmed the GitHub outage at 13:40 UTC on August 17. Error rates hit 20% across the web and API, and 50% for archive downloads. Cause is still unknown.
Down. GitHub outage confirmed by Microsoft at 13:40 UTC on August 17, with errors spreading across API requests, Actions, Webhooks, Issues, and Pull Requests within minutes of the initial report. GitHub's status page shows error rates of around 20% across web traffic and API calls - and roughly 50% for archive downloads and raw repository content. At 14:31 UTC, Copilot joined the list with degraded availability. GitHub has not disclosed a cause and says its investigation is ongoing.
Takeaways
- GitHub outage confirmed at 13:40 UTC August 17; Microsoft says investigation is ongoing with no cause disclosed
- 20% error rate across the web experience and API, ~50% on archive downloads and raw repository content
- Affected: API Requests, Actions, Webhooks, Issues, Pull Requests, SAML/OIDC auth, SCIM, Team Sync, Copilot
- Still operational: Git Operations, Packages, Pages, and Codespaces
- Downdetector logged over 10,000 user reports by 8:12 AM PT, with the US and India accounting for most volume
Authentication took a hit alongside the core platform. SAML and OIDC logins, SCIM provisioning, and Team Sync are all experiencing degraded performance - which means enterprise teams relying on SSO for access control are not just losing CI/CD. For teams running GitHub Copilot's metered billing, the degraded Copilot availability adds a second failure on top of the platform outage. Some users report server errors loading commits and repositories; others get pull request pages that fail to render.
Git push and pull operations, GitHub Packages, Pages, and Codespaces remain listed as operational on the status page. What broke is the layer on top - the web UI, the API, the automation hooks, and the AI coding service. Cursor, Copilot's main rival, has not reported related disruption. GitHub has given no estimate for resolution. Watch githubstatus.com for live updates.
