This is a concept, not a GitHub feature. I built it as a working prototype.
The problem
Most gaps in a contribution graph have a reason behind them. Parental leave, being sick, a holiday. The graph shows them as nothing, and people read nothing as "not working".
What I built
You select the empty days on your graph, say what you were doing, and they're marked as time away.
Decisions
I kept GitHub's keyboard model for the grid and added Shift and the arrow keys for selecting ranges.
Every day has a proper label, and marking or removing days gets announced to screen readers.
In high contrast mode, away days become a hatch pattern, the same way GitHub uses its dots for contribution levels.
Selection follows the dates down each week, because that's how the graph reads.
On touch, a long press starts selecting, so a normal swipe still scrolls the graph.
Built with React, TypeScript and Motion. Try it here: https://uzookafor.com/time-away
0 likes · 0 views · Nov 11, 2026
A GitHub feature concept: select empty days on your contribution graph and mark them as time away. Full keyboard support, screen reader labels, React build.
