The Pulse: AI load breaks GitHub – why not other vendors?

GitHub has been experiencing severe reliability issues, including a data integrity incident affecting 2,092 pull requests, multiple outages causing PRs and issues to disappear, and a critical security vulnerability. GitHub's CTO attributes the problems to a 3.5x increase in load driven by AI agents, compounded by an ongoing migration from own data centers to Azure and 18 years of accumulated tech debt. The company only began planning for a 10x capacity increase in October 2025, later revising the target to 30x. Notably, competitors like GitLab and Bitbucket, as well as other infra vendors experiencing similar AI-driven growth, have not suffered comparable outages — raising questions about how much of GitHub's pain is self-inflicted. Mitchell Hashimoto, founder of HashiCorp, publicly announced he is leaving GitHub after months of daily disruptions. Alternatives discussed include GitLab, Bitbucket, and self-hosted solutions like Forgejo.