Bug: "Rebase branch" only shows only after refresh

[nbolton]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

Body

On an out of date PR: Does anyone else always see the "Update branch" button the first time a PR page loads, then on refresh it shows the "Rebase branch" button instead?

Our project only allows rebase, not squash or merge. I believe this bug only affects projects with this PR merge configuration.

First page load:

After page refresh:

PR merge settings:

Project: https://github.com/deskflow/deskflow

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[syedsafeer]

Hi @nbolton, this definitely looks like a UI race condition or a state-syncing glitch. It seems the frontend is defaulting to the standard 'Update branch' button before fully loading your repository's 'Rebase only' merge settings.
Since you've clearly documented this with screenshots, it’s a solid bug report for the GitHub engineering team. Out of curiosity, does this persist in Incognito mode? That would help confirm if it’s a local caching issue or a wider frontend bug.

(If this helps, please Mark as Answer.)

[UdayaSri0]

hi @nbolton

Yeah, this does look like a UI/state-sync issue on GitHub’s side.

Since the repo is set to rebase only, the PR should really show “Rebase branch” straight away. The fact that it first shows “Update branch” and then changes after refresh makes it feel like the page is rendering a default action before the repo/PR merge settings fully load.

I’d probably sanity-check it in:

• incognito
• another browser
• with extensions disabled

But if it’s reproducible, I’d treat this as a real frontend bug rather than a repo config issue.

My guess: initial page load is using a generic fallback button, then after refresh or after the PR state fully resolves, it switches to the correct action.