This was a performance driven change. We added this as loading a cross repo issue is a much slower experience than loading an issue in the same repo due to the way the header is loaded (which is being worked on). But we hear you on the feedback - we will roll this back while we keep pushing on the root performance causes. [update - this change has been reverted and the previous behaviour is back]
How did the performance of GitHub become so slow in the first place? It didn't used to be this bad years ago.
Issue links now open in a popup
101–110 of 138 posts
Re: Issue links now open in a popup
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
How did the performance of GitHub become so slow in the first place? It didn't used to be this bad years ago.
AI. GitHub usage has exploded recently due to the ease at which code can be generated.
Re: Issue links now open in a popup
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you elaborate? The header meaning the top part of the page? I just checked on a recent repo I visited and it has the usual banner (which would stay the same), the repo path, some links, and some stats. Considering every page navigation would likely pull which links and stats are shown, why is this a delta to go to another repo and why are presumably 3 database entries (possible links, stars, forks) so slow?
I can't speak for GitHub but I've worked on multiple nav headers for large SaaS products and they can be ridiculously heavy weight to render given they appear on every page. They tend to be a dumping ground for features, many of which require their own permissions checks, feature flag checks, etc. it's not unusual to have to perform hierarchical permissions checks. They also tend to contain contextual info about the…
Re: Issue links now open in a popup
#104Performance is poor and there are a million other reasons to beat up on GH. This is not one of them.
Re: Issue links now open in a popup
#105This was a performance driven change. We added this as loading a cross repo issue is a much slower experience than loading an issue in the same repo due to the way the header is loaded (which is being worked on). But we hear you on the feedback - we will roll this back while we keep pushing on the root performance causes. [update - this change has been reverted and the previous behaviour is back]
was an on-call engineer paged for this on the weekend just to roll a revert instead of waiting until Monday?
Re: Issue links now open in a popup
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't speak for GitHub but I've worked on multiple nav headers for large SaaS products and they can be ridiculously heavy weight to render given they appear on every page. They tend to be a dumping ground for features, many of which require their own permissions checks, feature flag checks, etc. it's not unusual to have to perform hierarchical permissions checks. They also tend to contain contextual info about the…
Yes, pretty much this as well as some additional complexities due to the issue content being in React and the header in Rails - to the cost of approx 500-800ms p50 for a page load vs sub 100ms for a nav to an issue in the same repo (or without the header which is what we tried with this change here)
Re: Issue links now open in a popup
#107This was a performance driven change. We added this as loading a cross repo issue is a much slower experience than loading an issue in the same repo due to the way the header is loaded (which is being worked on). But we hear you on the feedback - we will roll this back while we keep pushing on the root performance causes. [update - this change has been reverted and the previous behaviour is back]
> update - this change has been reverted and the previous behaviour is back was an on-call engineer paged for this on the weekend just to roll a revert instead of waiting until Monday?
Re: Issue links now open in a popup
#108This was a performance driven change. We added this as loading a cross repo issue is a much slower experience than loading an issue in the same repo due to the way the header is loaded (which is being worked on). But we hear you on the feedback - we will roll this back while we keep pushing on the root performance causes. [update - this change has been reverted and the previous behaviour is back]
How did the performance of GitHub become so slow in the first place? It didn't used to be this bad years ago.
Re: Issue links now open in a popup
#109This was a performance driven change. We added this as loading a cross repo issue is a much slower experience than loading an issue in the same repo due to the way the header is loaded (which is being worked on). But we hear you on the feedback - we will roll this back while we keep pushing on the root performance causes. [update - this change has been reverted and the previous behaviour is back]
How did the performance of GitHub become so slow in the first place? It didn't used to be this bad years ago.
Yup, platform activity is surging. There were 1 billion commits in 2025. Now, it's 275 million per week, on pace for 14 billion this year if growth remains linear (spoiler: it won't.)
GitHub Actions has grown from 500M minutes/week in 2023 to 1B minutes/week in 2025, and now 2.1B minutes so far this week.
So we're pushing incredibly hard on more CPUs, scaling services, and strengthening GitHub’s core features.
Re: Issue links now open in a popup
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
Respect has to be earned, and I don't think anyone (within margin of error) with UX in their job title has earned it. Most of their work consists of shuffling design elements around for its own sake. Sometimes they strike gold (or at least silver or copper), but it never feels like that's done because they target a better design, rather they stumble upon it while making designs whose goal is to be different. You have…
Most people with UX in their job title these days aren't really UX designers. They're graphic designers that now have UX in their title because that is the fashion.