Clear persistent or ghost GitHub notifications — A step-by-step guide to force hidden notifications into view so they can be dismissed manually.

fix_github_ghost_notifications.md

🛠️ Fixing GitHub Ghost Notifications

Ghost notifications on GitHub can be frustrating. These are notifications that continue to show up in your notification count, even though they appear dismissed or no longer exist. This step-by-step guide will help you completely clear them from your GitHub notifications panel.

🔍 What Are "Ghost Notifications"?

Ghost notifications are lingering alerts in your GitHub notification count that won't go away — often caused by:

• Archived or hidden notifications that are still marked as unread
• Notifications from deleted repositories or issues
• Incomplete dismissal due to GitHub UI bugs or sync issues

Important

There are several types of GitHub ghost notifications, and each may require a different solution.

This guide builds on this GitHub comment, which I’ve expanded with additional details and clearer explanations. The method described here helped me successfully remove ghost notifications.

The Optional/Advanced method draws from the official GitHub documentation. You can use:

• cURL
• JavaScript
• GitHub CLI

The Community section includes additional solutions shared by other GitHub users, which may also work for you.

⚠️ This guide reflects my personal experience and is provided "as is".

✅ Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Go to the GitHub Notification Center

Visit https://github.com/notifications and log in if you haven’t already.

Tip

Before dismissing notifications, mark important ones as Saved. You can revisit them anytime from your Saved tab in the Notification Center.

If you see any visible notifications, make sure to read and dismiss them before continuing.

2. Move Archived Notifications to the Inbox

1. In the left sidebar, click Done.
2. Click Select all — this selects up to 25 notifications.
3. Click → Move to Inbox.
4. Refresh the page using F5 and/or Ctrl+R, then repeat steps 2 and 3 until you've moved at least 50 notifications to your Inbox.

3. Dismiss All Notifications from the Inbox

1. In the left sidebar, click Inbox.
2. Click Select all.
3. If prompted with options like Done, Unsubscribe, and Selected all 50 notifications, click Select all 50 notifications to ensure everything is selected.
4. Click Done to dismiss all selected notifications.

🎉 Done

By following these steps, you can remove persistent or "ghost" GitHub notifications that won’t disappear on their own. This method forces hidden or archived notifications into view so they can be manually dismissed — without needing the GitHub CLI or other advanced tools.

🧼 Still Seeing Ghost Notifications?

If the ghost notification count remains:

• Repeat steps 2 and 3 under "Move Archived Notifications to the Inbox" until you’ve moved 100 or more notifications. This ensures all hidden or ghost notifications are surfaced and can be removed.
• As a last resort, move all remaining notifications to your Inbox and dismiss them from there.

If none of these work, continue with the advanced options below.

🧪 Using GitHub REST API Endpoints (Optional/Advanced)

If the UI steps didn’t fully clear your ghost notifications, or if you prefer a programmatic approach, you can use the GitHub REST API to manage your notifications directly.

🧷 References

• 📚 GitHub REST API documentation
• 🚀 Quickstart for GitHub REST API
• 🔄 Manage notifications via REST API
• 🔐 Generate a GitHub Personal Access Token (classic)

Important

🔐 Your token must include the notifications scope

When creating a new Personal Access Token (Classic), scroll down to the Notifications section and check the Access notifications option.

For security purposes, always set an expiration date for the token.

⏳ By default, the expiration is set to 30 days.

💻 Example API Calls

✅ Mark All Notifications as Read

Tip

Before dismissing all notifications, mark important ones as Saved. You can revisit them anytime from your Saved tab in the Notification Center.

curl -L \
  -X PUT \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR-TOKEN>" \
  -H "X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2022-11-28" \
  https://api.github.com/notifications \
  -d '{"last_read_at":"2022-06-10T00:00:00Z","read":true}'

Note

Replace <YOUR-TOKEN> with a valid Personal Access Token that includes the notifications scope.

The last_read_at field sets the timestamp GitHub will treat as your most recent "read" point for notifications. This allows you to control which notifications are marked as read.

For complete reference, see the Mark notifications as read documentation.

🧹 Mark a Specific Repository Notifications as Read

curl -L \
  -X PUT \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR-TOKEN>" \
  -H "X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2022-11-28" \
  https://api.github.com/repos/OWNER/REPO/notifications \
  -d '{"last_read_at":"2019-01-01T00:00:00Z"}'

Note

Replace <YOUR-TOKEN> with a valid Personal Access Token that includes the notifications scope.

Replace OWNER and REPO with the GitHub username (owner) and repository name. These values are not case-sensitive. Example: https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/notifications \

The last_read_at field sets the timestamp GitHub will treat as your most recent "read" point for notifications. This allows you to control which notifications are marked as read from that specific repository.

For complete reference, see the Mark repository notifications as read documentation.

📨 Mark a Notification Thread as Read/Done

1. 📬 List Notifications for the Authenticated User

First, retrieve all current notifications for your account with the following command:

curl -L \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR-TOKEN>" \
  -H "X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2022-11-28" \
  https://api.github.com/notifications

Note

Replace <YOUR-TOKEN> with a valid Personal Access Token that includes the notifications scope.

If the response from GitHub is an empty array ([]), it means there are currently no notifications.

For the full reference, see List notifications for the authenticated user documentation.

When you send this request, GitHub returns a JSON response containing your notifications. If you’d like to see an example of the full cURL response, click below to expand:

Example: Full cURL Response (click to expand)

[
  {
    "id": "58392017462",
    "unread": true,
    "reason": "assign",
    "updated_at": "2025-11-07T05:12:58Z",
    "last_read_at": "2025-11-07T05:12:19Z",
    "subject": {
      "title": "chore(deps): update ghcr.io/amir20/dozzle docker tag to v8.14.7",
      "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/pulls/170",
      "latest_comment_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/pulls/170",
      "type": "PullRequest"
    },
    "repository": {
      "id": 918472305,
      "node_id": "R_kgDOLh3ZcW",
      "name": "docker",
      "full_name": "homelab-alpha/docker",
      "private": false,
      "owner": {
        "login": "homelab-alpha",
        "id": 740928516,
        "node_id": "U_J8fQm2VxRz",
        "avatar_url": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/740928516?v=4",
        "gravatar_id": "",
        "url": "https://api.github.com/users/homelab-alpha",
        "html_url": "https://github.com/homelab-alpha",
        "followers_url": "https://api.github.com/users/homelab-alpha/followers",
        "following_url": "https://api.github.com/users/homelab-alpha/following{/other_user}",
        "gists_url": "https://api.github.com/users/homelab-alpha/gists{/gist_id}",
        "starred_url": "https://api.github.com/users/homelab-alpha/starred{/owner}{/repo}",
        "subscriptions_url": "https://api.github.com/users/homelab-alpha/subscriptions",
        "organizations_url": "https://api.github.com/users/homelab-alpha/orgs",
        "repos_url": "https://api.github.com/users/homelab-alpha/repos",
        "events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/homelab-alpha/events{/privacy}",
        "received_events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/homelab-alpha/received_events",
        "type": "User",
        "user_view_type": "public",
        "site_admin": false
      },
      "html_url": "https://github.com/homelab-alpha/docker",
      "description": "Explore the world of containerization with Docker and Docker Compose. These powerful tools package, distribute, and manage containerized applications.",
      "fork": false,
      "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker",
      "forks_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/forks",
      "keys_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/keys{/key_id}",
      "collaborators_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/collaborators{/collaborator}",
      "teams_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/teams",
      "hooks_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/hooks",
      "issue_events_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/issues/events{/number}",
      "events_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/events",
      "assignees_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/assignees{/user}",
      "branches_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/branches{/branch}",
      "tags_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/tags",
      "blobs_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/git/blobs{/sha}",
      "git_tags_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/git/tags{/sha}",
      "git_refs_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/git/refs{/sha}",
      "trees_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/git/trees{/sha}",
      "statuses_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/statuses/{sha}",
      "languages_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/languages",
      "stargazers_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/stargazers",
      "contributors_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/contributors",
      "subscribers_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/subscribers",
      "subscription_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/subscription",
      "commits_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/commits{/sha}",
      "git_commits_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/git/commits{/sha}",
      "comments_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/comments{/number}",
      "issue_comment_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/issues/comments{/number}",
      "contents_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/contents/{+path}",
      "compare_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/compare/{base}...{head}",
      "merges_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/merges",
      "archive_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/{archive_format}{/ref}",
      "downloads_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/downloads",
      "issues_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/issues{/number}",
      "pulls_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/pulls{/number}",
      "milestones_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/milestones{/number}",
      "notifications_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/notifications{?since,all,participating}",
      "labels_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/labels{/name}",
      "releases_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/releases{/id}",
      "deployments_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/homelab-alpha/docker/deployments"
    },
    "url": "https://api.github.com/notifications/threads/58392017462",
    "subscription_url": "https://api.github.com/notifications/threads/58392017462/subscription"
  }
]

2. 🔎 Identify the Notification Thread

In the JSON output, locate the notification thread you want to mark as read. The repository.full_name field shows the GitHub username and repository name, the url field contains the thread ID.

Example:

[
  {
    "repository": {
      "full_name": "homelab-alpha/docker"
    },
    "url": "https://api.github.com/notifications/threads/58392017462"
  }
]

Here, the thread ID is 58392017462.

3. 🧹 Mark a Specific Thread as Read/Done

Once you have the thread ID, send a DELETE request to mark it as done:

curl -L \
  -X DELETE \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR-TOKEN>" \
  -H "X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2022-11-28" \
  https://api.github.com/notifications/threads/THREAD_ID

Note

Replace <YOUR-TOKEN> with a valid Personal Access Token that includes the notifications scope.

Replace THREAD_ID with the numeric ID from the url field in your notifications response. For example, if your notification JSON shows:

"url": "https://api.github.com/notifications/threads/58392017462"

the THREAD_ID is 58392017462.

For the full reference, see Mark a thread as done documentation

🌐 Options from the GitHub Community

The following are alternative solutions proposed by members of the GitHub community. In addition to the REST API, you may consider using the official GitHub CLI or other community-driven methods.

🧷 References

• 📚 GitHub CLI
• 📖 GitHub CLI documentation
• 🚀 Quickstart for GitHub CLI
• 🔌 GitHub CLI extension

💡 Community-Suggested Fixes

• 📚 GitHub Community Discussion on Ghost Notifications
• 🔄 GitHub CLI command suggestion
• 👻 gh-gonest is a GitHub CLI extension
• 📝 A simple Node.js script

have a star thx

@quantuminformation, did the cURL request work?

i didnt get round to it yet

These solutions didn't work for me. My ghost notification was from a repo that was deleted (plasma-network/plasma.to, if anyone's wondering). The only way that I found to clear it was to get the notification ID:

curl -L \
    -X GET \
    -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
    -H "X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2022-11-28" \
    https://api.github.com/notifications

and then reset that specific ID:

curl -LI \
    -X PATCH \
    -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
    -H "X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2022-11-28" \
    https://api.github.com/notifications/threads/<notification_id>

Hi @piemot, thanks for the information. I’ve added it to the guide.