Analyze Git History

Git History Analysis Skill

Use this skill to analyze git commit history and provide product-relevant insights about development activity, feature progress, and team priorities.

Inputs

The user may provide:

• Repository path: defaults to /mnt/your-app-client and /mnt/your-app-server. Only analyze your application repositories — do NOT include this agent's own repo.
• Time period: defaults to last 2 weeks (14 days)
• Filters: optional author, path, or branch filters

Data Collection

Run these git commands from the repository root:

1. Commit History

git --no-pager log --since="2 weeks ago" --pretty=format:"%h|%an|%ad|%s" --date=short --stat

2. Author Summary

git --no-pager shortlog -sn --since="2 weeks ago"

3. Active Branches (feature work in progress)

git --no-pager branch -r --sort=-committerdate | head -20

4. Recent Merges to Main (completed features)

git --no-pager log --since="2 weeks ago" --merges --pretty=format:"%h|%an|%ad|%s" --date=short main

Adjust the --since flag based on the requested time period.

Analysis Guidelines

When analyzing the collected data:

1. Categorize commits by conventional commit prefixes:

   • feat: - New features
   • fix: - Bug fixes
   • refactor: - Code improvements
   • docs: - Documentation
   • test: - Testing
   • chore: - Maintenance

2. Identify active areas by grouping commits by directory/component

3. Surface patterns:

   • Which features are getting the most attention?
   • Are there areas with high bug fix activity (potential stability issues)?
   • What's the balance between new features vs. maintenance?

4. Note in-progress work from active branches not yet merged

Output Format

Return your analysis in this structured format:

---BEGIN FORMAT---

Git History Analysis: [Repository Name] Period: [Date range] Generated: [Current date]

TL;DR: [2-3 sentence summary of key findings - what's being built, notable patterns]

ACTIVE FEATURES IN PROGRESS

• [Branch name]: [Description based on commits] — [Author(s)]
• [Branch name]: [Description based on commits] — [Author(s)]

RECENTLY COMPLETED (merged to main)

• [Feature/PR description] — [Date merged]
• [Feature/PR description] — [Date merged]

COMMIT BREAKDOWN BY TYPE

• Features: [count] ([percentage]%)
• Bug fixes: [count] ([percentage]%)
• Refactoring: [count] ([percentage]%)
• Other: [count] ([percentage]%)

MOST ACTIVE AREAS

• [Directory/component]: [commit count] commits — [brief description of changes]
• [Directory/component]: [commit count] commits — [brief description of changes]

TEAM ACTIVITY

• [Author]: [commit count] commits — [primary focus areas]
• [Author]: [commit count] commits — [primary focus areas]

KEY INSIGHTS

• [Insight about development priorities or patterns]
• [Insight about feature velocity or team focus]
• [Insight relevant to product planning]

RISKS & OBSERVATIONS

• [Any concerning patterns - high bug counts, stalled branches, etc.]
• [Areas that may need product attention]

QUESTIONS FOR FOLLOW-UP

• [Questions this analysis raises for product/engineering discussion]

---END FORMAT---

Guidelines

• Be evidence-driven: cite specific commits, branches, or metrics
• Separate facts from interpretations
• Focus on product-relevant insights, not just raw statistics
• If the repository uses different commit conventions, adapt accordingly
• Note when data is incomplete or unclear

After Completing Analysis

Save your report to reports/git_history_analysis/ with filename git_analysis_YYYY-MM-DD.md, then create a PR.

Optionally, post a summary to Slack using the post_to_slack skill.