Zig turns its back on GitHub: Frustration over Actions and Microsoft's AI course

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The programming language Zig is pulling the plug: After ten years on GitHub, the foundation behind the programming language has left the platform and moved its development to Codeberg. Zig founder Andrew Kelly explains this in a blog post.

The trigger was apparently not a minor bug, but a series of problems surrounding GitHub Actions – and growing dissatisfaction with where the service is heading under Microsoft.

"Vibe Scheduling" and Forgotten Bug Reports

It all started with an inconspicuous issue involving a faulty script. The corresponding thread "safe_sleep.sh" was started in April 2025. According to The Register, nothing happened for months. On November 26th, the Zig founder lost patience, among other reasons.

For him, the process is typical of the current state of the platform. He takes it as an example of the reasons behind Zig's departure: "Actions has unforgivable errors and is being completely neglected."

Kelly also criticizes that "vibe scheduling" is now being practiced – meaning jobs are seemingly randomly selected and accepted. This slows down development and is simply unacceptable for a compiler project.

GitHub focuses on AI, Zig keeps its distance

With Microsoft behind it, GitHub has increasingly focused on generative AI recently. Kelly sees this as a change in direction that comes at the expense of platform quality. It also doesn't align with Zig's clear "No-AI Policy".

In addition, there is general dissatisfaction with performance, usability, and priorities. GitHub has devolved from "technical excellence" to a "bloated, buggy JavaScript" platform. That's why Zig is now turning its back on it.

In fact, Zig has already completely moved. The new main repository is located at https://codeberg.org/ziglang/zig.git, as Kelly reveals in his announcement.

However, the old GitHub repo will remain, but it will be read-only. Issues will not be migrated. New tickets on Codeberg will now start at number 30,000 to avoid confusion.

The Downside: GitHub Sponsors

One sensitive point remains funding: GitHub Sponsors has been an important component for the Zig community for years, which is why Kelly sees it as the only downside of the departure. Nevertheless, Zig is pulling the plug.

The program has been neglected anyway since its original head, Devon Zuegel, left. Kelly is asking supporters to switch to every.org for donations.

Other Projects Are Also Turning Their Backs on GitHub

Incidentally, Zig is not the only team that is now critical of GitHub, as The Register writes. Other projects like the Dillo browser have cited similar reasons: too much JavaScript, too much AI, too little control.

Codeberg is benefiting from this: the platform has doubled its membership numbers in 2025.

This article first appeared on t3n.de.

(jle)