GitHub achievements, explained: every badge and how to earn it
The hexagonal badges on GitHub profiles are achievements — awarded automatically when your account does specific things. You can't buy them, request them, or add them manually; the only way is to trigger the condition. Here's the current set and what each takes.
The achievements
🦈 Pull Shark — merged pull requests. Earned at 2 merged PRs, with bronze/silver/gold tiers at 16, 128, and 1024. The most attainable badge for anyone who ships through PRs — even in your own repositories.
⚡ Quickdraw — close an issue or pull request within 5 minutes of opening it. Easiest earned by opening an issue in your own repo and closing it immediately (yes, that counts).
🎲 YOLO — merge a pull request without a review. A badge that celebrates what code review policies exist to prevent — GitHub has a sense of humor. Merge any of your own PRs unreviewed and it's yours.
⭐ Starstruck — a repository you own reaches 16 stars (tiers at 128, 512, 4096). The only badge here you can't earn alone — it requires building something people actually want. (A community that stars generously helps.)
🧠 Galaxy Brain — your answers get accepted in GitHub Discussions (2 accepted answers to start). Requires repos with Discussions enabled.
❤️ Public Sponsor — sponsor any open-source maintainer through GitHub Sponsors, at any amount.
🤿 Heart On Your Sleeve — react to something with the ❤️ emoji. Rolled out inconsistently; some accounts have it from a single reaction.
🌟 Retired badges — Arctic Code Vault Contributor (2020 program) and Mars 2020 Helicopter Contributor can no longer be earned; owning one just means the account was active in the right repos at the right time.
Do achievements actually matter?
Less than the rest of your profile. They're conversation pieces — a fully badged sidebar signals a long-time, engaged account, and that's about it. Nobody was ever hired for a YOLO badge.
What visitors do read, in order: your contribution graph, your pinned repositories, and your profile README. Get those right first — the graph part is exactly what GitShine keeps green for you — then collect badges for fun.
Quick wins today
- Open and close an issue in your own repo → Quickdraw
- Merge one of your own PRs without review → YOLO
- Get two PRs merged → Pull Shark
- ❤️-react to a comment → Heart On Your Sleeve
Four badges in ten minutes — and a profile that looks like it's been busy for years.