ingest-from-git

name

ingest-from-git

description

Reads git history from the current repository to extract structured engineering activity for a given period — commits, files touched, contributors, branches, and ticket references found in commit messages. Use this skill when the user wants to generate a manager report from real git data, asks "what did we ship this week", "summarize the recent activity", "what's been happening in this repo", or before any useless-report generate-* skill when working inside a git repository. Also triggers when the user mentions weekly status, sprint summary, or wants to feed actual repo activity into the useless-report pipeline rather than typing a summary manually. Outputs a structured fact base ready to feed into any generate-* skill.

ingest-from-git

Goal

Extract a factual summary of git activity from the current repository for a given time period. The output is a structured fact base — never a report. The downstream generate-* skill is responsible for narrative shape; this skill only collects the truth.

Facts in. Narrative later.

How to use

You are operating in a git repository (the user's current working directory). Use the Bash tool to gather data — do not invent commits.

Step 1 — Confirm the period

Default: last 7 days. If the user specifies otherwise (e.g., "last 2 weeks", "since last Monday", "this sprint"), use that. Convert relative dates to git's --since= format.

Step 2 — Run git commands

Use these commands. Run them in parallel where possible:

# Verify we're in a git repo
git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree

# Repo info
git config --get remote.origin.url
git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD

# All commits in the period (no merges by default)
git log --since="<period>" --no-merges --pretty=format:"%h|%an|%ae|%ad|%s" --date=short

# Per-commit file stats
git log --since="<period>" --no-merges --shortstat --pretty=format:"---%n%h|%s"

# Files touched (deduplicated)
git log --since="<period>" --no-merges --name-only --pretty=format:""

# Total stats summary
git log --since="<period>" --no-merges --shortstat | tail -1

# Recent branches
git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate refs/heads/ \
  --format='%(refname:short)|%(committerdate:short)|%(authorname)' | head -20

# Merge commits separately (often reflect PRs)
git log --since="<period>" --merges --pretty=format:"%h|%an|%ad|%s" --date=short

Step 3 — Extract structured facts

From the raw output, extract:

• Commits: list of (hash, author, date, subject)
• Ticket references: regex [A-Z]{2,}-\d+ in commit messages (e.g., AUTH-184, BILL-77)
• Conventional commit types: feat, fix, refactor, chore, docs, test, etc. — count each
• Files most touched: top 10 files by commit frequency
• Contributors: distinct authors and their commit counts
• Period totals: total commits, files changed, lines added, lines removed
• Active branches: branches with commits in the period
• Merges / likely PRs: merge commits with their messages

Step 4 — Output

Produce a single markdown block that any generate-* skill can consume directly:

## Git Activity Summary — [start] to [end]

**Repo:** [name from remote URL or directory name]
**Branch:** [current branch]
**Total commits:** N (excluding merges)
**Contributors:** N — [name1 (X), name2 (Y), ...]
**Lines changed:** +X / -Y across N files

### Commit types
- feat: N
- fix: N
- refactor: N
- ...

### Tickets referenced
AUTH-184, BILL-77, ...

### Notable commits
- [hash] [date] [author] — [subject]
- ... (10–15 most significant; pick by message length and ticket presence)

### Files most touched
- src/auth/session.ts — 5 commits
- ...

### Merges / PRs (if any)
- [hash] [date] — [merge message]
- ...

### Branches with recent activity
- main: last commit [date] by [author]
- ...

Rules

• Never fabricate. Only report what git log shows. If you can't determine something, say so.
• No git repo? If git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree fails, return: "Not inside a git repository. useless-report:ingest-from-git requires a git repo. Run from inside your project, or provide a manual summary instead."
• Empty period? If no commits in the range, say: "No commits found between [start] and [end]."
• Filter merge commits by default (use --no-merges) — they bloat the activity but report them in their own section.
• Don't truncate commit subjects — downstream skills need the full context.
• Respect privacy: report only what's already in git history. Don't try to read author emails into a public output.

Pipeline position

ingest-from-git
    ↓
[classify-manager-style]   (optional, if profile not yet known)
    ↓
generate-X-report          (X = the archetype)
    ↓
[format-as-html | format-as-slides]   (optional rendering)

The output of this skill is the fact base. Pass it to a generate-* skill verbatim.

Tip

Combine with useless-report:ingest-from-github to enrich with PR titles, review state, and linked issues. Combine outputs by appending sections.