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Every GitHub achievement explained + a safe sandbox to earn them
| Badge | How to earn it | Tiers |
|---|---|---|
| Quickdraw | Close an issue within 5 minutes of opening it | — |
| YOLO | Merge a PR without code review | — |
| Pull Shark | Merge pull requests | 2 / 16 / 128 / 1024 |
| Pair Extraordinaire | Co-authored commits on merged PRs | 1 / 10 / 24 / 48 |
| Galaxy Brain | Accepted answers in Discussions | 2 / 8 / 16 / 32 |
| Starstruck | Stars on your repos | 16 / 128 / 512 / 4096 |
| Open Sourcerer | PRs merged on public repos (currently closed) | — |
| Heart On Your Sleeve | Emoji reactions on your content (currently closed) | — |
| Public Sponsor | Sponsor open-source work via GitHub Sponsors | — |
| Developer Program Member | Register at github.com/developer/register | — |
| Mars 2020 / Arctic Code Vault | Historical events — unobtainable | — |
Open an issue in any of your repos → close it immediately. Badge triggers at the next scan.
Open a PR on your repo → merge it without requesting review. Done.
Every merged PR counts — including on your own repos. Script the create/merge loop and pace it under the anti-abuse limit (~10-15 merges/min sustained, or GitHub temporarily blocks content creation).
The Co-authored-by: trailer must be in the PR's commits, not the merge commit:
Co-authored-by: friend <12345+theiruser@users.noreply.github.com>
Each merged PR with a co-authored commit counts once toward the 48.
Discussions must have a Q&A category and someone must accept your answer. Marking your own answer on your own discussion does not count — the accept must come from the discussion author or another maintainer. Two-account or community approaches work.
Stars come from real users — ship something people want, promote it in the right places. This repo's sibling project Snitch is a living example.
This repo has an auto-merge bot (pull_request_target workflow). To safely earn YOLO/Pull Shark activity here:
- Fork this repo
- Edit
sandbox.mdin your fork (add a line — anything) - Open a PR that only touches
sandbox.md - The bot merges it automatically — check your merged-PR count
Only
sandbox.mdchanges are auto-merged, for obvious security reasons.
- When do badges appear? GitHub recalculates achievements in batches — anywhere from a few hours to ~3 days after the triggering activity.
- Do tiers upgrade? Yes — the badge levels up automatically as you cross thresholds.
- Can I lose a badge? Tier-based badges (Starstruck, Pull Shark, Pair Extraordinaire, Galaxy Brain) recalculate — dropping below a threshold demotes you. Deleted repos stop counting.
- Is this against the rules? GitHub's ToS prohibits spam and abuse. The badges are cosmetic; the community norms are what they are. Practice responsibly — a profile with diamond Pull Shark and 3 followers raises eyebrows, not admiration.
| Badge | What counts | What doesn't |
|---|---|---|
| Pull Shark | PR merged on any repo you don't own... or do own | reverts, drafts |
| Pair Extraordinaire | Co-authored-by: in merge commit |
regular commits |
| Galaxy Brain | Accepted answer in Q&A discussion | upvotes alone |
| Heart On Your Sleeve | Any ❤️ reaction on your content | reactions on others' |
| YOLO | Merge with zero reviews requested | "review skipped" still counts as review |
GitHub recalculates achievements on a delayed cron — merges to badge can take 24-48h. The /settings/appearance showcase may lag a week. Don't panic if a completed action doesn't show instantly.
- A private sandbox repo gets you Pull Shark/YOLO/Pair legitimately — it's your own repo, your own PRs.
- Galaxy Brain genuinely requires another human's question OR a second account asking you.
- Heart On Your Sleeve needs real people reacting — hence this repo's sandbox issue.
Maintained by aixisstudio — author of Snitch, the open-source application firewall.
MIT