Skip to main content
✨ OPEN SOURCE MILESTONES & ACHIEVEMENTS

GitHub Achievement Badges

What each badge asks for, the count for every tier, and a practice repo where your first merged PR counts. A community guide to levelling up your open source profile.

14Badges covered
7Earnable today
6Certifications

✦ EARNABLE ACHIEVEMENTS

Badges you can earn today

Tick off the ones you already have. Multi-tier badges level up from Default to Gold as your count grows.

Your progress0 of 7 earned
BadgeNameHow to getNeeded amount
Starstruck badgeStarstruck

Own a repository that earns stars from other users.

Build something useful and document it well. Asking for star swaps can get flagged as spam.

Example repoWatch the video tutorial

LEVELS: DEFAULT, BRONZE, SILVER, GOLD
Starstruck, Default tierStarstruck, Bronze tierStarstruck, Silver tierStarstruck, Gold tier
Needed: 16, 128, 512, 4096
Quickdraw badgeQuickdraw

Close an issue or pull request within 5 minutes of opening it.

Open an issue in your own repo for a small to-do, fix it, and close it in the same sitting.

LEVEL: DEFAULT
Quickdraw, Default tier
Needed: 1
Pair Extraordinaire badgePair Extraordinaire

Coauthor commits on a merged pull request.

Add a Co-authored-by: Name <email> line at the end of the commit message. Works from any editor.

TutorialWatch the video tutorial

LEVELS: DEFAULT, BRONZE, SILVER, GOLD
Pair Extraordinaire, Default tierPair Extraordinaire, Bronze tierPair Extraordinaire, Silver tierPair Extraordinaire, Gold tier
Needed: 1, 10, 24, 48
Pull Shark badgePull Shark

Open pull requests that get merged.

Start with a good first issue on recode hive. A reviewed, merged PR also counts toward your contribution graph.

Practice repoWatch the video tutorial

LEVELS: DEFAULT, BRONZE, SILVER, GOLD
Pull Shark, Default tierPull Shark, Bronze tierPull Shark, Silver tierPull Shark, Gold tier
Needed: 2, 16, 128, 1024
Galaxy Brain badgeGalaxy Brain

Answer a GitHub Discussion and have your answer marked as accepted.

Answer questions in the recode hive Discussions tab. Clear, tested answers get accepted.

Open discussionsWatch the video tutorial

LEVELS: DEFAULT, BRONZE, SILVER, GOLD
Galaxy Brain, Default tierGalaxy Brain, Bronze tierGalaxy Brain, Silver tierGalaxy Brain, Gold tier
Needed: 2, 8, 16, 32
YOLO badgeYOLO

Merge a pull request without a code review.

Use a repository you own. On shared projects, always ask for a review instead.

Watch the video tutorial

LEVEL: DEFAULT
YOLO, Default tier
Needed: 1
Public Sponsor badgePublic Sponsor

Sponsor an open source maintainer through GitHub Sponsors.

Any public sponsorship counts. Pick a maintainer whose project you actually use.

GitHub SponsorsWatch the video tutorial

LEVEL: DEFAULT
Public Sponsor, Default tier
Needed: 1

👋 Achievement skin tone 👋

Some achievements change with your emoji skin tone preference.
You can pick yours in GitHub appearance settings.

BadgeNameSkin tone versions
Starstruck badgeStarstruck
Starstruck, skin tone 1Starstruck, skin tone 2Starstruck, skin tone 3Starstruck, skin tone 4Starstruck, skin tone 5Starstruck, skin tone 6
Quickdraw badgeQuickdraw
Quickdraw, skin tone 1Quickdraw, skin tone 2Quickdraw, skin tone 3Quickdraw, skin tone 4Quickdraw, skin tone 5Quickdraw, skin tone 6

✦ HIGHLIGHTS

Highlight badges

These sit at the top of your profile and come from programs, not from activity counts.

  • ProSubscribe to GitHub Pro, or get it free with the GitHub Student Developer Pack.Student Pack ↗
  • Developer Program MemberRegister for the GitHub Developer Program.Join ↗
  • Security Bug Bounty HunterReport a valid vulnerability through the GitHub Security Bug Bounty.Bug bounty ↗
  • GitHub Campus ExpertGet accepted into and complete the GitHub Campus Expert program.Campus program ↗
  • Security advisory creditBe credited on a security advisory accepted into the GitHub Advisory Database.Advisory database ↗

❌ Badges no longer earnable ❌

BadgeNameHow to getNeeded amount
Mars 2020 Contributor badgeMars 2020 Contributor

Had code in a repository used by the Mars 2020 Helicopter Mission

DEFAULT
Mars 2020 Contributor, Default tier
1
Arctic Code Vault Contributor badgeArctic Code Vault Contributor

Had code in a repository saved by the 2020 GitHub Archive Program

DEFAULT
Arctic Code Vault Contributor, Default tier
1

✦ GO FURTHER

GitHub certifications

Achievements show activity. Certifications prove skill: proctored exams you can add to LinkedIn and your resume.

GitHub Foundations certification badgeOur founder holds this

Foundations GH-900

The basics: repositories, pull requests, issues, collaboration and the GitHub product family. The best first exam.

Prepare for GH-900 →
GH-500add official badge

Advanced Security GH-500

Code scanning, secret scanning and dependency review across a codebase.

Prepare for GH-500 →
GitHub Administration certification badge

Administration GH-100

Managing organizations, permissions, policies and enterprise settings.

Prepare for GH-100 →
GH-300add official badgeOur founder holds this

Copilot GH-300

Using GitHub Copilot responsibly across the development workflow, from prompting to review.

Prepare for GH-300 →
GitHub Agentic AI Developer certification badgeNew

Agentic AI Developer GH-600

Designing and shipping AI agents and agent-driven workflows on GitHub.

Prepare for GH-600 →

Badge names and requirements from GitHub Docs and the community-maintained GitHub-Achievements list. GitHub and the achievement artwork are trademarks of GitHub, Inc. Last checked October 2026.