Your GitHub Contribution Graph Means Absolutely Nothing - And Here’s Why

If your GitHub contribution graph disappeared tomorrow, would that make you a worse developer?

For years, we’ve been trained — consciously or not — to treat green squares as a proxy for competence, discipline, or even passion.

TL;DR:
A GitHub contribution graph measures neither productivity, nor skill, nor engagement as a developer.

Let me start with two very short stories that inspired me to write this article.

Story #1: Auto-commits and visible consistency 🤖

This discussion was inspired by an article I recently read on DEV.

The author described how he created an app that automatically commits his code. According to him, he programs a lot, but often simply forgets to commit and push his changes — which makes his GitHub contribution graph look… poor.

And while I absolutely respect the curiosity, creativity, and the act of turning an idea into a working project, one thought immediately crossed my mind:

Who on earth evaluates developers based on the number of their commits?

That makes very little sense.

Many people in the comments agreed, but some shared stories from job interviews where managers actually asked candidates why their GitHub activity was so low. Even if the answer made perfect sense (for example: most of their work lives in private company repositories) and the interview continued normally, there was still that unpleasant feeling — the candidate was pushed into a defensive position for no good reason.

Personally, I’ve participated in many recruitment processes and was asked about my GitHub exactly once. But maybe I’m just lucky?

Story #2: The graph of doom 😱

A few days earlier, a friend from my previous job shared a screenshot of someone’s contribution graph. I’ve modified it here to protect privacy, but it looked roughly like this (The AI stubbornly paints 8 days a week instead of 7 — let's keep it that way 🙃):

Impressive? Maybe. Terrifying? Also maybe.

My friend — a very empathetic person — didn’t feel admiration at all. Instead, he felt concern.

Where is the work-life balance?
When does this person rest?
How does this human being even function?

The mystery was solved pretty quickly. The graph most likely looked like this because the user had a job that ran a daily database backup.

For the record: this person actually was very active on GitHub and contributed to many open-source projects — just… not that much.

And this is where we get to the core of the problem.

When did a contribution graph become a way to judge someone as a developer? 🤔

By design, it never should have been.
And it doesn’t hold up to even basic common sense.

And yet, somehow, we still look at it and think:

• “Oh, this person works a lot.”
• “This dev commits once in a while — probably not very engaged.”

It’s one thing when random people think like this.
It’s much worse when it happens during recruitment.

Because based on a contribution graph, you can’t tell:

• how good someone is,
• how busy they really are,
• or even whether the activity is meaningful at all.

One person may forget to commit or work mostly in private repositories. Another may solve complex problems for weeks with very few commits. Meanwhile someone else may just be running an automated job every day.🤷‍♂️

My own empty graph 🙃

I’m actually a great example of this.

Here is my impressive GitHub contribution graph for 2023:

So what happened in 2023? Maybe some of you will ask: “Sylwia, did you sleep through the whole year? Or maybe you won the lottery?” 🤔

The truth is I was a tech lead in a startup building Anti-Money Laundering technology. I worked hard, built a lot of things, and honestly — thanks to contributions to my company’s private repositories, my GitHub looked pretty impressive.

Then, in 2025, I changed job and was simply removed from those repositories. And just like that… my graph vanished.

Today, I create small demo repositories once a month — and given my current lifestyle, I consider that a lot.

What actually matters on GitHub 🧠

Of course, there is value in looking at someone’s GitHub more closely and seeing what they build.

Do they contribute to open source?
Do they create their own interesting projects?

Sometimes a person with a few solid projects and even a few months of inactivity is far more valuable than someone who commits a few lines of code every single day.

And besides…

Not everyone has to contribute to open source 🚶‍♀️🚶‍♂️

People contribute to the community in very different ways.

For example, I like writing blog posts. It doesn’t stress me out, I enjoy sharing my thoughts, and writing comes easily to me. I write fast, I read fast, and I don’t use my brain while doing any of it. 😅 After a full day of coding at work — plus endless calls like “Sylwia, how does this work?” — writing code in the evening is simply exhausting.

But I can easily imagine people for whom writing is painful, while coding after hours is pure relaxation.

Others create tutorials.
Some record videos.
Some prepare conference talks.
Some share work on StackBlitz or CodePen.

And some are so deeply engaged in their full-time jobs that they simply have no time or energy left for anything else related to code.

Which leads me to another question.

Does everyone really need to be active in the community? 🧩

IT is kind of a cultural anomaly here.

Is there any other industry where people are almost expected to work for free after hours for the benefit of others?
Do journalists write free articles at night just in case?
Do lawyers prepare guidelines for the community so they can get their next job?
Do shopkeepers learn about the products they sell after work to better help customers? 🤔🤣

I personally love the IT community and I’m happy to contribute. But not everyone has to.

People have families, hobbies, and different priorities. Some just come to work, do their job well, and then live their lives. And you know what? They might still be absolutely brilliant developers — sometimes better than the loudest community heroes.

Not every programmer has to be obsessed with IT or follow every new trend. We also need people who simply show up and deliver. And yes — we need them very much.

Over to you 💬

How about you?
Have you ever been asked about your GitHub contribution graph during recruitment?
Or has no one ever mentioned it?

I’m genuinely curious what your experience has been.