Explain clones info in Github's Traffic tab

Question

In a recent question I made, one of the answers pointed to another answer in another question where a way to explore the forks and clones of a public Github repo was shared.

I went ahead and did that with my own public repo and came up with this information in the Git clones section under the Traffic tab in the Graphs section:

I'm not really sure I understand what this information means. Are there 6 clones of the repo in total with 4 of them made on the 09/08? Did only 3 unique cloners cloned it?, in which case, does that mean they cloned it more than once? Do those numbers include myself and any clones I might have made in different systems (ie: home PC, work PC, laptop, etc)? Any help is much appreciated.

Answer 1

I believe part of the confusion is that the graph shows 4 cloners (blue line), and the label is saying 3 unique cloners. Other than that, it should be interpreted as:

• 6 clones in the past 14 days, 4 made on 9/8 ... this may not indicate the "total" as you ask, as this graph only ever goes back 14 days
• 3 unique cloners cloned it, some of them may have cloned it more than once...
• ...For example, on 9/8, it could have been cloners:clones of 1:1 and 1:3 ... it doesn't give you that level of information
• It should include every time the git clone command was executed against the repo, so all of your different devices, yes.
• You would be identified as a unique user or not based on if it could determine "unique GitHub users (or anonymous IP addresses)" + confirmation from GitHub support