How are commits counted by the GitHub contributions graph?

Question

How are contributions in the GitHub Contributions graph on my profile counted? (The one with the green dots.) Does whether a commit is counted or not depend on the username in the commit, or the email associated with it?

Please provide details. Is there any way I can associate commits with my username but change my email and still have the green dots appear?

Answer 1

GitHub has an article about this on their site. See Why are my contributions not showing up on my profile? Regarding commits, the article says:

Commits

Commits will appear on your contributions graph if they meet all of the following conditions:

• The commits were made within the past year.
• The email address used for the commits is associated with your GitHub account.
• The commits were made in a standalone repository, not a fork.
• The commits were made:
  • In the repository's default branch (usually master)
  • In the gh-pages branch (for repositories with Project Pages sites)

In addition, at least one of the following must be true:

• You are a collaborator on the repository or are a member of the organization that owns the repository.
• You have forked the repository.
• You have opened a pull request or issue in the repository.
• You have starred the repository.

You can associate multiple email addresses with your GitHub account from your email settings page.

Answer 2

Make sure setting your email in local configuration.

git config --global user.name "kimcrab"
git config --global user.email "[email protected]"