Why MySQL's GitHub Activity Stalled: Implications for the Open‑Source Database

Recent inactivity on MySQL's GitHub repository

On January 13, media reports highlighted that the official MySQL Server repository on GitHub has gone more than three months without any code submissions, indicating a sharp decline in development activity.

Historical context and declining contributions

After Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems in 2020, MySQL remained active for several years with a relatively stable development pace. However, starting in 2019, the number of commits began to drop year over year, and as of today the repository has recorded zero commits for four consecutive months.

Impact of recent Oracle layoffs

In September 2025, Oracle announced a global layoff that affected the MySQL core development team, cutting roughly 70 senior engineers and key contributors who had long been involved in the community edition's evolution. The former “father of MySQL” expressed sorrow on social media, noting that while the layoffs were unsurprising, they were still disheartening.

Underlying reasons for the slowdown

Oracle appears to be shifting its strategic focus toward proprietary MySQL products, reducing investment in the open‑source branch. Additional pain points include the need for utf8mb4 to display emojis (improved only after MySQL 8.0), performance regressions reported by users—especially under write‑intensive workloads where MySQL 9.5 showed lower throughput than 8.0—and growing competition from PostgreSQL.

Future outlook

Despite MySQL’s high market share and widespread deployment, the rise of large language models (LLMs) and AI agents that interact with databases, along with emerging tools, may further erode its usage. The community’s concerns about the sustainability of the open‑source version are therefore justified.