Linguist
From time to time we get requests asking us to add support for new highlighting lexers, recognize additional extensions as certain languages, or ignore a directory from a repo’s stats…

From time to time we get requests asking us to add support for new highlighting lexers, recognize additional extensions as certain languages, or ignore a directory from a repo’s stats graph.
The code for these concerns was scattered around the app. I decided to unify and package them all up into a single library. Now it’s open source.
So if you notice an unrecognized extension or you’re really into some obscure language that isn’t supported yet, now is your chance to help contribute back.
https://github.com/github/linguist
Written by
Related posts
GitHub availability report: October 2026
In October, we experienced eight incidents that resulted in degraded performance across GitHub services.
GitHub Universe 2026: Evolving every layer of the stack
Today, we laid out our vision for GitHub as the most comprehensive, end-to-end software delivery system in the world.
Octoverse: Commits, pushes, reach new highs in 2026 as developers build with agents
See how a record year of growth reached every industry, every field, and every kind of builder in the 2026 Octoverse report.