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Is GitHub Down? Git Push, Pull Request and SSH Errors (Nov 2026)

Short answer: If git push, pull requests or the GitHub API start failing, check githubstatus.com first. On November 4, 2026, GitHub had a major incident affecting Git Operations, Pull Requests, Issues, API Requests and Actions from 09:49 to 11:50 UTC (4:49 to 6:50 AM ET); GitHub has marked it resolved.

TL;DR: quick fix

Check if GitHub is down for everyone.
If an incident is open, wait and retry rather than changing your setup.
If the status page is green but you get "Permission denied (publickey)", test your SSH connection with ssh -T git@github.com.

Is GitHub down?

Before you change settings, check GitHub Status. If there's an outage, wait it out.

How to fix it: step by step

Check whether GitHub is down for everyone: open githubstatus.com, which lists Git Operations, Webhooks, API Requests, Issues, Pull Requests, Actions, Packages, Pages, Copilot and Codespaces. When we checked on November 4, 2026, after the incident, all systems were operational.
If an incident is open, wait and retry rather than changing your setup. During the November 4 incident GitHub said some requests might fail or be delayed while it restored service, so errors at that time were on GitHub's side.
If the status page is green but you get "Permission denied (publickey)", test your SSH connection with ssh -T git@github.com. GitHub says you should see "Hi USERNAME! You've successfully authenticated". Always connect as the "git" user, not your GitHub username, and don't run Git with sudo.
Make sure your SSH key is loaded: start the agent with eval "$(ssh-agent -s)", list keys with ssh-add -l -E sha256, and verify that the public key is attached to your GitHub account.
If a firewall blocks SSH on port 22, test SSH over the HTTPS port with ssh -T -p 443 git@ssh.github.com. If that works, add "Host github.com / Hostname ssh.github.com / Port 443 / User git" to ~/.ssh/config, or switch to an HTTPS remote with credential caching.

FAQ

Was GitHub down today (November 4, 2026)?

Yes. GitHub's status page logged a major incident starting at 09:49 UTC (4:49 AM ET) with degraded performance for Git Operations, Issues and Pull Requests. Actions and API Requests were also affected. GitHub mitigated it at 11:30 UTC, mitigated Actions at 11:43 UTC, and marked it resolved at 11:50 UTC (6:50 AM ET). GitHub says a root cause analysis will follow.

Was GitHub also down on November 3?

Yes. GitHub's status page lists an "Incident with Git Operations" on November 3, 2026 from 20:57 to 22:41 UTC (3:57 to 5:41 PM ET). It is marked resolved.

What does "Permission denied (publickey)" mean?

GitHub says it means the server rejected your connection. Common causes are connecting as the wrong user, using sudo, having no SSH key loaded, or the public key not being attached to your account.

Can I push over port 443 if port 22 is blocked?

Yes. GitHub supports SSH over the HTTPS port using the host ssh.github.com on port 443 (not github.com).

Last checked Nov 4, 2026 against the official help page: GitHub Status. Menus can differ by app version; follow the official page if a step doesn't match.