git-chronicle

Free engineering analytics from your git history — no $36K/yr subscription required.

Computes DORA metrics and team velocity from any git repository in seconds.

Install

npm install -g git-chronicle
# or run directly:
npx git-chronicle report .

Usage

# Terminal report (default, last 90 days)
git-chronicle report /path/to/repo

# Last 30 days
git-chronicle report . --days 30

# Export markdown report
git-chronicle report . --format markdown --output report.md

What It Measures

DORA Metrics

| Metric | What it measures | Data source | |--------|-----------------|-------------| | Deployment Frequency | How often code ships | Git tags/releases | | Lead Time for Changes | Commit → release time | Commit timestamps vs tags | | Change Failure Rate | % reverts + hotfixes | Commit messages | | Mean Time to Recovery | Time from failure to fix | Commit message patterns |

Team Velocity

• Commits per contributor with feature/fix/chore breakdown
• Lines added/removed per author
• Average commit size

Code Hotspots

• High-churn files that change frequently (refactoring candidates)
• Multi-author files (coordination risk)
• Scored by: commit frequency × author count × change volume

Performance Bands

Based on DORA 2023 State of DevOps Report thresholds:

| Band | Deploy Freq | Lead Time | CFR | MTTR | |------|-------------|-----------|-----|------| | Elite | On-demand (≥1/day) | <1 hour | <5% | <1 hour | | High | 1/week–1/day | <1 day | 5–10% | <1 day | | Medium | 1/month–1/week | <1 week | 10–15% | <1 week | | Low | <1/month | >1 week | >15% | >1 week |

Why This Exists

Enterprise engineering intelligence platforms (LinearB, Jellyfish, Hatica) cost $36K–$92K/year. This tool costs $0, runs locally, never phones home, and produces the same core metrics from your existing git history.

Examples

Terminal output:

  ◆ Team Summary  (last 90 days)
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  Total commits:       247
  Active contributors: 8
  Commits/day:         2.74
  Commits/week:        19.2
  Lines added:         +14320
  Lines removed:       -5891

  ◆ DORA Metrics
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  Deployment Frequency   [High]
    12 deploys  ·  2.8/week

  Lead Time for Changes  [High]
    avg 6.5 hr

  Change Failure Rate    [Elite]
    5.0%  (12 of 247 commits)

  Mean Time to Recovery  [High]
    avg 4.2 hr