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So I've forked someone else's repository, made a few changes, submitted a pull request, and my changes made it into the product. Great!

But...what should I do with my forked repository? Is there a compelling reason for me to keep my repository around, or should I go ahead and delete it? I don't plan on making any additional contributions, but if I change my mind I assume I can always just re-fork it.

I'm not really concerned about keeping a backup. I'm more worried about breaking links, losing commit messages, etc.

Brant Bobby
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    Please delete it or github will run out of hashes. – Armand Mar 24 '11 at 16:49
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    duplicate code is evil. And that also goes across git boundaries. – stijn Mar 24 '11 at 17:11
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    @stijn - I read this more as "backup" than "duplicate". And I don't think I've ever heard anyone argue that backup code is evil ... – Beekguk Mar 24 '11 at 18:15
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    Delete it. After all, you can always download the last state (which is the one you will want to continue working from anyway) from the project repo. – Rook Mar 24 '11 at 21:17
  • What happens if the original repo gets deleted and no one has forks remaining? How to regain access to the repo/fork in that case? – Kromster Oct 12 '16 at 09:01
  • I'd like to add a specific concern: profile metrics. Will GitHub change my contribution metrics? – gibatronic Nov 19 '18 at 14:06
  • @Armand Is that a serious problem, or mathematically unlikely within the lifetime of mankind? – gerrit Apr 23 '19 at 10:48
  • @gerrit Git hashes are... well, hashes. There is no incrementing number, they are calculated based on [various information about the commit](https://gist.github.com/masak/2415865). So the number of commits that exist doesn't change anything. – Artemis Feb 09 '21 at 21:38

5 Answers5

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If your pull request got accepted and you haven't made any other changes that you might use personally, you should delete it.

  1. Deleting doesn't harm anything.
  2. You can always refork if you need to
  3. It cuts down on useless repos in search results when people are searching for something
  4. If you use your GitHub as a sort of resume for potential jobs/contracts, it looks better if you don't have dozens of forked repos that you're not currently working on. You'll appear more efficient.
  5. It helps your own sanity when you don't have to page through hundreds of useless repos.
  6. Its better for GitHub. :)
tharris
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    @PLPeeters, Actually that's a pretty big downside. – Pacerier Aug 13 '15 at 10:05
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    I suggest using [`remove-github-forks`](https://www.npmjs.com/package/remove-github-forks) to "Delete all forks that have no commits that are not in the main repository." Works like a charm. – fregante Mar 07 '16 at 08:07
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    Deleting a fork will remove that fork from being reflected to by 'Repositories you contribute to' list. On the upside deleting an unused fork makes it faster for Github for Mac to autocomplete which repo you want to clone down from your profile. – Steve Moser Mar 23 '16 at 13:20
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    @SteveMoser I may be wrong, but I think you still keep the "Repositories you contributed to" list. I had one I removed every connection between and it still stayed there somehow, but might of been a fluke :P – Mark Pieszak - Trilon.io Apr 11 '16 at 18:10
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    @SteveMoser I think GitHub should keep repos in that list considering [opening/closing issues is a contribution](https://help.github.com/articles/why-are-my-contributions-not-showing-up-on-my-profile/) and you don't have to fork to do that. – TWiStErRob Jun 02 '16 at 22:35
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    I took the risk and deleted the forked repository and my contributed list didn't get affected so I can safely say that deleting the forked repo will not affect your contribution credits – Amin Mohamed Ajani Mar 14 '17 at 16:10
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    Archiving the repository is another option. It hides it from your list without deleting it. – Peter DeWeese Feb 23 '18 at 14:05
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You can delete your fork as soon as you submit a Pull Request, regardless if it's merged or not. GitHub stores all PRs in the upstream repository, meaning proposed changes are tracked even if the fork is deleted.

That simplifies the decision.

You may still want to keep the fork if:

  • You'll be contributing more right away (e.g. extend existing PR or open new PRs)

You may want to delete the fork if:

  • You want a clean portfolio of projects under your name
Dennis
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    "You can delete your fork as soon as you send your Pull Request" This is what I was looking for! – Unnawut Jan 13 '18 at 07:31
  • Me too, but the answer starts with "If your pull request got accepted..." Did you try it :D – Legends Mar 29 '18 at 00:17
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    **Warning**: When you delete your fork, the original branch name is removed from any pending pull requests. ([*Stevoisiak wants to merge 1 commit into `Drugoy:master` from `unknown repository`*](https://github.com/Drugoy/Autohotkey-scripts-.ahk/pull/16)) – Stevoisiak May 01 '18 at 13:48
  • If you delete your fork before the PR is merged, not only will "unknown repository" be displayed as mentioned in previous comment but it will also not be possible to add additional commits to the PR using your fork / branch. At least not easily and maybe not at all. This is sometimes done by repository maintainers if a PR needs some "tweaking" before merging. – Sybille Peters Jun 20 '20 at 05:04
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    This doesn't seem to be true anymore, my pull request was automatically closed (by myself according to the pull request history) because "user closed this by deleting the head repository". – Esteban Feb 06 '23 at 22:28
  • @Esteban it's possible the underlying architecture hasn't changed (much) and the PR upstream is now aware of destructive changes to the fork and the new auto-close behaviour is done for convenience to clean potentially abandoned PRs. Does GitHub allow you to re-open the automatically closed PR while the fork is deleted? – Dennis Feb 07 '23 at 01:53
  • @Dennis, it does allow you to re-open it, but it can get messy because if the repository has some automated checks for the PR they all fail because they can't clone the original [deleted] repository – Esteban Feb 08 '23 at 02:28
  • @Esteban okay it sounds like GitHub still stores the PR upstream which is why the PR still exists and can be re-opened even with the fork deleted, but some automated PR checks, which often use external tools, may rely on the fork existing. – Dennis Feb 09 '23 at 00:54
  • GitHub no longer allows re-opening a PR after it's auto-closed by deleting your fork. – mtraceur Aug 07 '23 at 21:24
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Updated answer:

As of February 18, 2021, the “Unknown Repository” issue has been resolved. You should be ok to delete repositories once all the branches have been merged.

Old answer:

Deleting forked repositories will erase history from your Pull Requests.

PR with unknown repository

Deleting a forked repository will delete any information associated with your repository. This can retroactively affect any references to your repository, including pull requests that have already been merged. (See Pull request displays "unknown repo" after deletion of fork)

Your comments and commits should be preserved on any pull requests that were associated with your repository, but you will do so at your own risk.

However, deleting old branches after a merge is perfectly safe.

While deleting repositories should be avoided, deleting unused branches is perfectly acceptable. In fact, GitHub encourages you to delete old branches.

Tidying up after Pull Requests

At GitHub, we love to use Pull Requests all day, every day. The only trouble is that we end up with a lot of defunct branches after Pull Requests have been merged or closed. From time to time, one of us would clear out these branches with a script, but we thought it would be better to take care of this step as part of our regular workflow on GitHub.com.

Starting today, after a Pull Request has been merged, you’ll see a button to delete the lingering branch:

Delete this branch button

If the Pull Request was closed without being merged, the button will look a little different to warn you about deleting unmerged commits:

Delete branch with warning

Of course, you can only delete branches in repositories that you have push access to.

Enjoy your tidy repositories!

Alternatively, if you really don't want to keep them around, you can archive a repository to indicate it is no longer actively maintained.

See also

Stevoisiak
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    What exactly happens to the unmerged closed pull requests when you delete their branch (the second case in the quoted article)? Will the commits still be available in the pull request, only without their history, or will they be completely gone? – typo Aug 24 '18 at 19:13
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    @typo According to GitHub's documentation, "[*You cannot delete branches that are associated with open pull requests.*](https://help.github.com/articles/deleting-and-restoring-branches-in-a-pull-request/)" – Stevoisiak Aug 24 '18 at 19:49
  • This "unknown repo" issue has a workaround. If there is a PR displaying unknown repository after the fork was deleted, and you want to resurrect that PR, simply type: `git fetch origin refs/pull/123/head:foo` Reference: https://github.com/isaacs/github/issues/168#issuecomment-374201226 – Abdul Rauf Feb 07 '20 at 05:28
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    As of 18 Feb 2021, the 'unknown-repository' issue has been fixed, see https://github.com/isaacs/github/issues/168#issuecomment-780788097. – weiji14 Feb 22 '21 at 05:33
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I would probably tar/gzip it and put in an archive dir, then delete it 3 years later. ;) Honestly If you don't intend to work on it again for the next few months and have not used it in a while I think it would be safe to delete it.

Zachary K
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Just to add to the answers provided - GitHub itself recommends deleting ("tidying") forked repositories after they've been merged.

This can be done right in the pull request after merge - please see this blog post.

Furthermore, as of this moment, I don't see any downsides noticed in the comments:

  • even after deleting forked repository, there is correct message in the pull request (no "unknown repository")
  • repository to which you've contributed is still listed in your contribution activity
  • you are still listed in contributors of that repository

I would not recommend deleting it before merging as suggested by @Dennis, as you might still have to make some modifications to the code if requested by the authors.

Marius Balčytis
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    I just deleted a forked repository and the pull request now says `unknown repository`. Oh well. – Krassi Apr 11 '17 at 09:22
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    Your link goes to an article explaining how to delete a *branch* after a successful PR merge; this question however asks about deleting a *repository*. You will only observe the "unknown repository" when you delete your own project fork (*repository*). – stakx May 24 '17 at 11:01
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    The question is about deleting a fork, not a branch. – Andy Aug 20 '18 at 22:59