gitwatch

name

gitwatch

description

Track and summarize git commits affecting a specific folder or file over a time period. Use when the user wants to understand what changed in a path, review recent commits, or get a changelog-style summary. Triggers include "what changed in src/", "show commits affecting utils.py", "gitwatch the api folder", "summarize changes to X in the last week", or any request to track/watch/monitor git history for a specific path.

Gitwatch

Analyze git history for a specific path and provide a clear summary of changes.

Arguments

Argument	Default	Description
path	(required)	File or folder path to watch
duration	24h	Time window (e.g., 24h, 7d, 2w, 1m)
branch	origin/main	Branch to analyze

Workflow

1. Parse duration

Convert duration to git date format:

• 24h / 1d → --since="24 hours ago"
• 7d / 1w → --since="7 days ago"
• 2w → --since="14 days ago"
• 1m → --since="1 month ago"

2. Fetch commits

git log <branch> --since="<duration>" --oneline --stat -- <path>

For detailed analysis:

git log <branch> --since="<duration>" --format="%H|%an|%ad|%s" --date=short -- <path>

3. Analyze and summarize

If no commits found, report that the path had no changes in the time window.

For each commit, examine:

git show <hash> --stat -- <path>
git show <hash> -- <path>  # if diff details needed

4. Output format

## Summary

[A small summary with bullet points describing the overall nature of changes: what areas were affected,
what types of changes occurred (features, fixes, refactors), and the general direction]

## Commits

[If ≤10 commits: list all with brief descriptions]
[If >10 commits: list the most significant ones based on impact/scope, note "X additional minor commits omitted"]

| Commit |  PR number (if any) | Author | Date       | Summary                         |
|--------|---------------------|--------|------------|---------------------------------|
| abc123 |      #396         | Alice  | 2024-01-15 | Added validation for user input |
| def456 |      #512         | Bob    | 2024-01-14 | Fixed null pointer in parser    |

Significance criteria (when >10 commits)

Select most significant commits based on:

• Commits with substantial line changes
• Commits affecting core functionality vs peripheral files
• Commits with meaningful feature/fix descriptions vs minor tweaks
• Merge commits summarizing larger changes

Omit: typo fixes, formatting-only changes, minor refactors, dependency bumps.