git-why

git blame tells you WHO. git-why tells you WHY.

Traces any line of code back through commits → PRs → issues to explain the intent behind a change. No LLM required — pure extraction + template summarization. Fast, free, deterministic.

Install

npm install -g @phoenixaihub/git-why

Prerequisites:

• Node.js ≥ 18
• git CLI
• gh CLI (for GitHub PR/issue lookups — gh auth login required)

Usage

Explain a line

git-why src/auth/token.ts:42

📌 Line 42: src/auth/token.ts
   const TOKEN_EXPIRY = 3600 * 24;

🔗 Commit: a1b2c3d (2024-03-15) by Jane Smith
   Fix auth token expiry

📋 PR #42: "Fix auth token expiry"
   Extended token lifetime from 1h to 24h after user complaints
   about frequent logouts during long sessions.
   https://github.com/owner/repo/pull/42

🎯 Issue #38: "Users logged out after 1 hour"
   Reported by 12 users. Root cause: default token expiry too aggressive.
   https://github.com/owner/repo/issues/38

✅ Intent: Added in PR #42 ("Fix auth token expiry") to resolve issue #38 ("Users logged out after 1 hour"). Author: Jane Smith. Date: 2024-03-15.

Explain a range of lines

git-why src/auth/token.ts:40-50

Explain why a function exists

git-why src/auth/token.ts --function validateToken

File evolution timeline

git-why src/auth/token.ts --history

Repository intent coverage stats

git-why --stats

📊 Repository Intent Coverage

  Total commits analyzed:   142
  Commits linked to PRs:    78.2% (111)
  Commits linked to issues: 52.1% (74)

  Intent Coverage Score: 67.9% [█████████████░░░░░░░]

  💡 Tip: Good coverage — consider adding issue descriptions.

How it works

1. git blame — finds the commit SHA for the target line(s)
2. Ref extraction — scans commit message for #123, closes #N, GH-123, PR URLs
3. GitHub API (via gh CLI) — fetches PR description + linked issues
4. Graceful degradation — if no PR found, tries GitHub's commit→PR lookup; if no issue, shows PR only; always useful
5. Cache — stores results in .git-why/cache.json (TTL: 24h) to avoid re-fetching

Supported ref patterns

| Pattern | Example | Type | |---------|---------|------| | #N | #42 | PR candidate | | closes/fixes/resolves #N | closes #38 | Issue (definitive) | | GH-N | GH-123 | PR candidate | | PR URL | github.com/owner/repo/pull/42 | PR | | Issue URL | github.com/owner/repo/issues/38 | Issue |

VS Code Integration (coming soon)

A VS Code extension will show inline "why" tooltips on hover — powered by git-why under the hood.

License

MIT © Phoenix AI Hub

Architecture

git-why
├── src/
│   ├── cli.ts         # Commander CLI entry point
│   ├── blame.ts       # git blame wrapper + line extraction
│   ├── refs.ts        # Commit message ref pattern extraction
│   ├── github.ts      # gh CLI wrapper for PR/issue lookups
│   ├── cache.ts       # .git-why/cache.json with TTL
│   └── format.ts      # Terminal output formatting
└── tests/

Flow: git blame line → extract commit SHA → parse commit message for refs → gh api lookup PR + issue → render

CI Setup

# .github/workflows/ci.yml
name: CI
on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20
      - run: npm ci
      - run: npm test
      - run: npm run build

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md.