git-recap

A lightweight, zero-dependency CLI that aggregates your local Git commit messages over a timeframe so you can prepare for daily standups in seconds.

It reads only from local .git state on disk. No SSH keys, no network, no remote APIs.

Install · Usage · Changelog · Development · Contributing · Homebrew tap

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Features

• Smart summaries — groups commits into Features, Fixes, Docs, Refactors, Tests, Performance, Chores, Reviews, and Other
• Standup-ready — short, readable bullets with a final copy-friendly summary
• Contextual — run inside a repo to recap just that project
• Multi-scan — run in a parent folder (e.g. ~/Projects) to scan immediate subdirectories
• Targeted — pass specific paths or repo names as arguments
• Reliable author matching — prefers git config user.email, then falls back to user.name
• Optional PR reviews — --reviews adds your GitHub PR reviews via the authenticated gh CLI
• Zero dependencies — pure Bash + git plumbing (and optional gh only when you pass --reviews)
• Private by default — offline from local Git; network only for explicit --reviews

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Installation

Homebrew

brew tap StackwiseTechnologiesLtd/tools
brew trust StackwiseTechnologiesLtd/tools   # required by modern Homebrew
brew install git-recap

From source

git clone https://github.com/StackwiseTechnologiesLtd/git-recap.git
cd git-recap
chmod +x bin/git-recap
# optional: link onto your PATH
ln -s "$(pwd)/bin/git-recap" /usr/local/bin/git-recap

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Usage

git-recap                          # smart summary for current repo, or scan cwd subdirs
git-recap project-a ~/code/app     # specific targets
git-recap --today                  # commits since midnight
git-recap --yesterday              # yesterday's commits
git-recap --week                   # commits from the last week
git-recap --since "2 days ago"     # custom timeframe
git-recap --since "3 days ago" --until yesterday
git-recap --author "Jane Doe"      # override author match
git-recap --all-authors --today    # every author in the window
git-recap --max-length 72          # shorter standup bullets
git-recap --plain                  # paste into Slack / notes
git-recap --color never            # force no ANSI colors
git-recap --summary-only           # only the standup summary block
git-recap --flat                   # raw commit list
git-recap --include-merges         # keep merge commits
git-recap --reviews --today        # also include your GitHub PR reviews (needs gh)
git-recap -r --today               # deep-scan folders for repos
git-recap --json --today           # machine-readable summary
GIT_RECAP_SINCE="1 week ago" git-recap
git-recap -V                       # version
git-recap -h                       # help

If --reviews is missing a dependency, an interactive setup wizard walks you through GitHub CLI and/or SSH key setup and verifies each step. In non-interactive environments (CI/pipes), it prints setup commands on stderr and continues with the commit recap only.

Timeframe

Method	Example
Default	last 24 hours (1 day ago)
Today	git-recap --today
Yesterday	git-recap --yesterday
Week	git-recap --week
Flag	git-recap --since "3 days ago" or -s "yesterday"
Until	git-recap --until yesterday or -u "2026-07-01"
Env	GIT_RECAP_SINCE="1 week ago" git-recap

Values are passed through to git log --since / --until, so any Git date expression works. --yesterday uses --since "yesterday 00:00" --until "today 00:00".

Routing logic

Situation	Behavior
Paths/names passed as args	Process only those targets (skip if no .git)
No args, inside a Git repo	Recap this repository only
No args, not inside a repo	Scan immediate subdirectories for .git

Sample output

my-app · 3 commits · since 1 day ago
────────────────────────────────────────
  Features (2)
    • Add dashboard filters (a1b2c3d)
    • Improve onboarding checklist (b2c3d4e)
  Fixes (1)
    • Handle expired auth tokens (c3d4e5f)

api-gateway · 1 commit · since 1 day ago
────────────────────────────────────────
  Performance (1)
    • Cache account lookup responses (d4e5f6a)

Standup summary · 4 commits · since 1 day ago
────────────────────────────────────────
  Features (2)
    • my-app: Add dashboard filters
    • my-app: Improve onboarding checklist
  Fixes (1)
    • my-app: Handle expired auth tokens
  Performance (1)
    • api-gateway: Cache account lookup responses

Repositories with no commits by you in the timeframe are omitted. Single-repo runs skip the duplicate standup block. Use --plain for paste-ready output, and --summary-only when you want just the final summary. Commit subjects are cleaned for standup readability: conventional prefixes like feat: are stripped in smart mode, and long subjects are shortened at word boundaries.

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Requirements

• Bash
• Git (with user.email or user.name configured)

git config --global user.email "you@example.com"
git config --global user.name "Your Name"

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Project structure

git-recap/
├── bin/git-recap          # CLI executable (Bash)
├── tests/cli-smoke.sh     # CLI smoke tests
├── docs/logo.svg          # Brand asset (canonical)
├── git-recap.rb           # Homebrew formula reference copy
├── web/                   # Landing site (Next.js + Tailwind)
├── .github/workflows/ci.yml
├── CONTRIBUTING.md
└── README.md

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Development

See docs/DEVELOPMENT.md for a full local workflow. Quick start:

CLI

chmod +x bin/git-recap tests/cli-smoke.sh
bash -n bin/git-recap
./tests/cli-smoke.sh
./bin/git-recap --help

Landing site

cd web
npm install
npm run dev      # http://localhost:3000
npm run lint
npm test
npm run build

Continuous integration

GitHub Actions (.github/workflows/ci.yml) runs on pushes and pull requests to main:

• CLI: bash -n, ShellCheck, smoke tests
• Web: npm ci → lint → tests → build

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Website

The marketing site lives in web/. Brand colors:

• Background: white
• Text: black
• Primary: #541111 (matches the logo)

Canonical logo: docs/logo.svg (mirrored to web/public/logo.svg).

Release notes: CHANGELOG.md.
Version bumps (files to touch, manual steps, Homebrew): docs/VERSIONING.md.

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Maintaining the Homebrew formula

The install formula lives in homebrew-tools as Formula/git-recap.rb. A copy is also kept in this repo as git-recap.rb for reference.

Full checklist (CLI + site files, changelog, tags): docs/VERSIONING.md.

Publishing a new version (short)

1. Bump versions and docs per VERSIONING.md, merge to main
2. Tag and push: git tag vX.Y.Z && git push origin vX.Y.Z
3. Create a GitHub release (or gh release create vX.Y.Z)
4. Compute the archive checksum:

curl -sL https://github.com/StackwiseTechnologiesLtd/git-recap/archive/refs/tags/vX.Y.Z.tar.gz | shasum -a 256

5. Update url + sha256 in the tap formula (and this repo’s git-recap.rb) and push homebrew-tools
6. Users upgrade with brew upgrade git-recap

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please read CONTRIBUTING.md before opening a pull request.

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License

MIT — see LICENSE.