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> Github is struggling because AI-boosted coding increased the number of commits 14x in the past year, and the pace is still accelerating. Sure, but how is Ope

> Github is struggling because AI-boosted coding increased the number of commits 14x in the past year, and the pace is still accelerating. Sure, but how is OpenAI, and Claude handling the increased usage? They are handling it a lot better than Github. Just because you have fast growth does not mean you can not handle it. Instead you have to realize that you are entering into a high growth phase and design around that. It has been clear that we are in a high growth phase for around a year now and Github still hasn't adapted to that properly. At some point you have to admit that Github ready for the moment.

traviswingo 2mo ago
GitHub is on Azure. Azure is notorious for being terrible. There was a post here recently from an ex-Azure engineer explaining all of this in a multi-part series. Edit: Found the thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47616242 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47616242
- Tiberium 2mo ago
  Isn't a lot of OpenAI infra also on Azure? They seem to be faring better than GitHub.
  - bhouston 2mo ago
    I bet OpenAI has failovers to other data centers. I think they have a variety of data center provides all over the place.
    - prewett 2mo ago
      There's already a noun for this: "resources"
- moralestapia 2mo ago
  Q. how can someone publish an article like that, with their name, etc... Don't they sign NDAs? Do they not care? Are they not enforceable? Very curious to know.
  - ornornor 2mo ago
    Maybe they didn’t take the severance part that makes the NDA valid? IIRC for an NDA to be enforceable there has to be a monetary consideration to it. Or maybe it’s for no competes?
    - jaredsohn 2mo ago
      NDAs often get signed when you join a company.
  - dmitrygr 2mo ago
    Some people reach a level of DGAF where it will not matter Some fuck-ups have such long-lasting effects that they outlast the NDAs that would cover them
- Peanuts99 2mo ago
  I didn't think they'd completed the move yet, it's only partially on Azure - which to be fair could be another problem in itself.
tekno45 2mo ago
OpenAI and Claude don't accept commits and host PRs? How are they the same?
- logicchains 2mo ago
  They're undergoing the same kind of load. Almost every AI commit that's putting pressure on GitHub's servers was written on OpenAI and Anthropic's servers.
  - simonw 2mo ago
    Scaling ChatGPT and scaling GitHub are very different problems. For LLMs, prompt handling is effectively stateless. They do try to route follow-up prompts to the same cluster to benefit from prompt caching, but those can be effectively sharded. They also need to write results to storage but that's on a per-customer basis, so also easy to shard. GitHub is a shared space, where commits and issues and PRs need to become instantly available to all readers across all geographies. They have a very different shape of scaling challenge to the LLM vendors.
    - bhouston 2mo ago
      > GitHub is a shared space, where commits and issues and PRs need to become instantly available to all readers across all geographies. They have a very different shape of scaling challenge to the LLM vendors. Github data is accessible by all (if open source), but they should be partition-able by individual repository (and their related forks.). Thus while there is more shared state across users, it isn't fully shared state. And they have been working on this semi-shared state design for over 10 years now.
  - etc-hosts 2mo ago
    Every response from GitHub must be deterministic. OpenAI and Anthropic do not have this problem.
    - 27183 2mo ago
SamBam 2mo ago
OpenAI and Anthropic are spending hundreds of billions of dollars that they may never recoup forcing the building massive new data centers in the face of widespread protest. You think GitHub ought to match that?
- bhouston 2mo ago
  > OpenAI and Anthropic are spending hundreds of billions of dollars that they may never recoup forcing the building massive new data centers in the face of widespread protest. So has Github's owner Microsoft. It's build out is on par with OpenAI and Anthropic. > You think GitHub ought to match that? Microsoft is. The issue is that the software stack is not stable. That is clearly the issue here. It isn't a hardware build out issue. It is related to the architecture of Github.
theappsecguy 2mo ago
Well they heavily limit free tier usage and for paid users they are charging a tiered pricing model that ramps up very aggressively. Github is a lot more generous in this sense and it has a lot more surface area in terms of the functionality it serves
remus 2mo ago
> Sure, but how is OpenAI, and Claude handling the increased usage? By spending tens of billions in investor cash. It is not clear what a sustainable business model looks like for these companies at the moment. > They are handling it a lot better than Github. Are they? Anthropic has fairly frequent issues. There's high growth and then there's demand increasing 10x in a year. For a mature business like github that's a massive, and I can't think of many big businesses who would be able to scale smoothly to accommodate that kind of demand.
- mixmastamyk 2mo ago
  Yes, OAI is losing tens of billions, Anthro is losing billions, and MS is cashflow positive and rewarded for that by Wall St, according to recent earnings reports.
baal80spam 2mo ago
> They are handling it a lot better than Github. No, they are not. https://status.claude.com/ https://status.claude.com/ https://www.githubstatus.com/ https://www.githubstatus.com/
1attice 2mo ago
This would require foresight, budget, and attention. MS currently has none of these.
maccard 2mo ago
For a very long time this year Claude was down multiple times a week. Can’t speak for OpenAI
stronglikedan 2mo ago
Open AI and Claude were not nearly as mature as Github when the boom started. That's a lot of legacy infra to scale up.
fl0id 2mo ago
anthropic frequently rate limits or is just unavailable... so I wouldn't exactly say they are handling it better.
never_inline 2mo ago
GitHub is not able to charge in proportion to commits pushed, and can't scale in proportion either without it being too expensive.
sigseg1v 2mo ago
Claude has 1 to 2 nines of uptime if you check their uptime history on their site. And I'll note that their definition of up is... generous. Plenty of times I encounter it saying no issues when there are abundant service issues.

traviswingo 2mo ago

GitHub is on Azure. Azure is notorious for being terrible. There was a post here recently from an ex-Azure engineer explaining all of this in a multi-part series. Edit: Found the thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47616242 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47616242

Tiberium 2mo ago
Isn't a lot of OpenAI infra also on Azure? They seem to be faring better than GitHub.
- bhouston 2mo ago
  I bet OpenAI has failovers to other data centers. I think they have a variety of data center provides all over the place.
  - prewett 2mo ago
    There's already a noun for this: "resources"
moralestapia 2mo ago
Q. how can someone publish an article like that, with their name, etc... Don't they sign NDAs? Do they not care? Are they not enforceable? Very curious to know.
- ornornor 2mo ago
  Maybe they didn’t take the severance part that makes the NDA valid? IIRC for an NDA to be enforceable there has to be a monetary consideration to it. Or maybe it’s for no competes?
  - jaredsohn 2mo ago
    NDAs often get signed when you join a company.
- dmitrygr 2mo ago
  Some people reach a level of DGAF where it will not matter Some fuck-ups have such long-lasting effects that they outlast the NDAs that would cover them
Peanuts99 2mo ago
I didn't think they'd completed the move yet, it's only partially on Azure - which to be fair could be another problem in itself.

tekno45 2mo ago

OpenAI and Claude don't accept commits and host PRs? How are they the same?

logicchains 2mo ago
They're undergoing the same kind of load. Almost every AI commit that's putting pressure on GitHub's servers was written on OpenAI and Anthropic's servers.
- simonw 2mo ago
  Scaling ChatGPT and scaling GitHub are very different problems. For LLMs, prompt handling is effectively stateless. They do try to route follow-up prompts to the same cluster to benefit from prompt caching, but those can be effectively sharded. They also need to write results to storage but that's on a per-customer basis, so also easy to shard. GitHub is a shared space, where commits and issues and PRs need to become instantly available to all readers across all geographies. They have a very different shape of scaling challenge to the LLM vendors.
  - bhouston 2mo ago
    > GitHub is a shared space, where commits and issues and PRs need to become instantly available to all readers across all geographies. They have a very different shape of scaling challenge to the LLM vendors. Github data is accessible by all (if open source), but they should be partition-able by individual repository (and their related forks.). Thus while there is more shared state across users, it isn't fully shared state. And they have been working on this semi-shared state design for over 10 years now.
- etc-hosts 2mo ago
  Every response from GitHub must be deterministic. OpenAI and Anthropic do not have this problem.
  - 27183 2mo ago

SamBam 2mo ago

OpenAI and Anthropic are spending hundreds of billions of dollars that they may never recoup forcing the building massive new data centers in the face of widespread protest. You think GitHub ought to match that?

bhouston 2mo ago
> OpenAI and Anthropic are spending hundreds of billions of dollars that they may never recoup forcing the building massive new data centers in the face of widespread protest. So has Github's owner Microsoft. It's build out is on par with OpenAI and Anthropic. > You think GitHub ought to match that? Microsoft is. The issue is that the software stack is not stable. That is clearly the issue here. It isn't a hardware build out issue. It is related to the architecture of Github.

theappsecguy 2mo ago

Well they heavily limit free tier usage and for paid users they are charging a tiered pricing model that ramps up very aggressively. Github is a lot more generous in this sense and it has a lot more surface area in terms of the functionality it serves

remus 2mo ago

> Sure, but how is OpenAI, and Claude handling the increased usage? By spending tens of billions in investor cash. It is not clear what a sustainable business model looks like for these companies at the moment. > They are handling it a lot better than Github. Are they? Anthropic has fairly frequent issues. There's high growth and then there's demand increasing 10x in a year. For a mature business like github that's a massive, and I can't think of many big businesses who would be able to scale smoothly to accommodate that kind of demand.

mixmastamyk 2mo ago
Yes, OAI is losing tens of billions, Anthro is losing billions, and MS is cashflow positive and rewarded for that by Wall St, according to recent earnings reports.

baal80spam 2mo ago

> They are handling it a lot better than Github. No, they are not. https://status.claude.com/ https://status.claude.com/ https://www.githubstatus.com/ https://www.githubstatus.com/

1attice 2mo ago

This would require foresight, budget, and attention. MS currently has none of these.

maccard 2mo ago

For a very long time this year Claude was down multiple times a week. Can’t speak for OpenAI

stronglikedan 2mo ago

Open AI and Claude were not nearly as mature as Github when the boom started. That's a lot of legacy infra to scale up.

fl0id 2mo ago

anthropic frequently rate limits or is just unavailable... so I wouldn't exactly say they are handling it better.

never_inline 2mo ago

GitHub is not able to charge in proportion to commits pushed, and can't scale in proportion either without it being too expensive.

sigseg1v 2mo ago

Claude has 1 to 2 nines of uptime if you check their uptime history on their site. And I'll note that their definition of up is... generous. Plenty of times I encounter it saying no issues when there are abundant service issues.