gitwhen

Pinpoint when a string, line, or file changed in git history. Wraps git log -S, git blame, and git log --diff-filter=A with sensible defaults so you don't have to memorize flag combinations. Zero deps. Free forever from vøiddo.

$ gitwhen "TODO: deprecated"
gitwhen "TODO: deprecated"

 ● a3c4b18 2026-03-14 alice — drop legacy queue path
 ● 7f1e602 2025-11-08 bob   — TODO before refactor

2 commit(s) touched the diff.

Why gitwhen

Git already knows the answer. The problem is the question takes three different commands depending on whether you want to find when a string entered the codebase, when a line was last set, or when a file was first added or last deleted. You only run any of them once a quarter, so by the time you need it you've forgotten the flag soup. git log -S "<str>" -- path/, git blame -L 42,42 file, git log --diff-filter=A --reverse -- path — three different mental models. gitwhen is the mnemonic that wraps all three.

Install

npm install -g @v0idd0/gitwhen

Usage

# When did this string get added/removed?
gitwhen "TODO: deprecated"

# What commit last set this exact line?
gitwhen src/server/index.ts:42

# When was a file first added / deleted / re-added?
gitwhen --file backend/legacy.py

# Regex variant
gitwhen --regex "console\.log\(.*pii.*\)"

# Restrict string search to a path
gitwhen "API_KEY" --path backend/

# JSON for scripts
gitwhen "feature_flag" --json | jq '.commits[0].author'

What it does

| Mode | Wraps | Output | |---|---|---| | gitwhen "<query>" | git log --all -S "<query>" | Every commit that introduced or removed this exact string, oldest first | | gitwhen <file>:<line> | git blame --porcelain | Hash, author, date, subject, line content | | gitwhen --file <path> | git log --diff-filter=A/D | First-added commit, every delete, re-adds, last-touched | | gitwhen --regex "<re>" | git log --all -G <re> | Same as string mode but regex matching on the diff |

Add --json to any for structured output ready for jq.

Compared to alternatives

| tool | string-pickaxe | line-blame | file-lifespan | regex on diff | install | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | gitwhen | yes | yes | yes | yes | one npm install | | git log -S | yes | no | no | no | bundled | | git blame | no | yes | no | no | bundled | | git log --diff-filter | no | no | yes | no | bundled | | GitLens (VS Code) | yes | yes | yes | partial | editor extension |

If you live in VS Code, GitLens does this and more. For a terminal-resident workflow (server triage, code review on a remote box), gitwhen is the consolidating CLI.

FAQ

Why search across all branches by default? Because regressions tend to live in some branch you forgot about. git log -S defaulting to current branch means "I know what reverted me" misses the obvious answer.

Performance on a 100K-commit repo? First search is bound by git log -S itself (a few seconds in pathological cases). gitwhen adds <100ms of parsing on top.

Does it find renames? For --file mode yes (we pass --follow). For string-pickaxe mode renames don't matter — the content is what's tracked.

What about git log --all -L <line>? That's the "evolution of this exact line" view. It's powerful but slow on large files; gitwhen's blame mode is the snapshot ("who set this now"). Different question, different tool.

Exit codes

• 0 — found at least one match
• 1 — no commits matched (empty timeline)
• 2 — invalid arguments or not a git repo

Wire it into a pre-commit / CI guardrail:

gitwhen --json "OLD_DEPRECATED_API" | jq -e '.count > 0' > /dev/null && {
  echo "OLD_DEPRECATED_API is back in your tree."
  exit 1
}

Programmatic API

const { searchString, blameLine, fileLifespan } = require('@v0idd0/gitwhen');

const r = searchString('feature_flag', { cwd: '/path/to/repo' });
console.log(r.commits[0]);
// { hash, short, author, email, date, subject }

More from the studio

This is one tool out of many — see from-the-studio.md for the full lineup of vøiddo products (other CLI tools, browser extensions, the studio's flagship products and games).

License

MIT.

Built by vøiddo — a small studio shipping AI-flavoured products, free dev tools, Chrome extensions and weird browser games.