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Mayuresh Smita Suresh
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Terminal Time Machine - Transform Your Git History Into Epic Stories 🕰️

#devchallenge #githubchallenge #cli #githubcopilot

GitHub Copilot CLI Challenge Submission

This is a submission for the GitHub Copilot CLI Challenge

What I Built

Have you ever looked at git log and thought, "This tells me nothing about my project's journey"?

commit abc1234
Author: Mayuresh 
Date: Mon Feb 3
  fixed bug

commit def5678
Author: Mayuresh  
Date: Sun Feb 2
  update
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Boring, right? Every repository has an incredible story hidden in its commits - the late-night breakthroughs, the major refactors, the "aha!" moments. But git logs don't capture that narrative.

That's why I built Terminal Time Machine - a CLI tool that transforms your git history into engaging stories with beautiful ASCII visualizations.

🎯 What It Does

Terminal Time Machine (ttm) analyzes your git repository and generates:

📖 Narrative Stories - Your commits become chapters in an epic tale:

═══════════════════════════════════════════════════
  Chapter 2: The Great Refactoring
  February 2026
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════

As the project matured, the team faced a critical decision.
The monolithic architecture that served us well in early days
now threatened to slow us down.

Over 23 commits across 8 intense days, the codebase was
reimagined. Sarah led the database migration effort, while
the team rallied around backward compatibility...
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🎨 ASCII Timelines - Visual representations of your history:

2025  │
Jan   ├─●─────●──────────────●─ Project inception
      │ │     │              └─ First working prototype  
      │ │     └─ Core architecture decided
      │ └─ Initial commit "Hello, World!"
      │
Feb   ├───────●──────●─────────● Major refactor begins
      │       │      │         └─ Tests: 45% → 78%
      │       │      └─ Database layer complete
      │       └─ API endpoints redesigned
      │
Mar   ├─●─────────●───────────── v1.0 Released! 🎉
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👥 Contributor Spotlights - Beautiful analysis of who built what:

╔════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║  CONTRIBUTOR SPOTLIGHT                        ║
╚════════════════════════════════════════════════╝

📊 Statistics:
   • 234 commits (42% of total)
   • 12,847 lines added
   • Most active: February-March 2025
   • Top expertise: Backend architecture

🔥 Activity Heatmap:
   Jan  ████████░░░░░░░░
   Feb  ████████████████
   Mar  ████████░░░░░░░░
   Apr  ████░░░░░░░░░░░░
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⚡ Smart Features:

  • 🎯 Milestone Detection - Automatically identifies releases, refactors, and key moments
  • 📝 Release Notes Generator - Professional changelogs in seconds
  • 💾 Multiple Export Formats - Markdown, HTML, JSON
  • 🎨 Color Themes - Classic, Hacker, Sunset, Ocean
  • 📊 Repository Statistics - Comprehensive analytics

💡 Why This Matters

As a developer and founder at Ambicube Limited in the UK, I've seen how important it is to communicate technical work to non-technical stakeholders. Git logs are great for developers, but they don't tell the story of what we've built.

Terminal Time Machine bridges that gap. It helps:

  • Teams onboard new members by showing project evolution
  • Managers understand velocity and contribution patterns
  • Maintainers generate beautiful release notes automatically
  • Everyone appreciate the journey of building software

This tool turns technical data into human stories.

Demo

🎬 See It In Action

📦 Try It Yourself 

# Install globally
npm install -g terminal-time-machine

# Navigate to any git repository
cd your-project

# Generate your story
ttm story

# Show timeline
ttm timeline

# Analyze contributors
ttm contributors

# Generate release notes
ttm release-notes v1.0.0..v2.0.0
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🔗 Links

📸 Screenshots

Story Mode Output:
![Story Generation]
output

Narrative generation showing project evolution

My Experience with GitHub Copilot CLI

GitHub Copilot CLI was absolutely transformative for this project. As a solo developer working on this challenge, having an AI pair programmer available 24/7 made the difference between "good idea" and "shipped product."

🏗️ 1. Architecting the Core Story Generator

The Challenge: I needed to transform raw git commit data into coherent narrative text. How do you group commits into logical "chapters"? How do you identify meaningful patterns?

What I Did:

gh copilot suggest "What's the best approach to analyze git commits 
and group them into logical chapters for a narrative story generator?"
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Copilot's Response: It suggested three key strategies:

  1. Time-based clustering - Group by weeks/months
  2. Semantic analysis - Analyze commit messages for themes
  3. File-based grouping - Commits affecting similar files

This became the foundation of my commit-analyzer.js module. Copilot then helped me implement each strategy:

gh copilot suggest "Write a JavaScript function that groups git commits 
by semantic similarity using commit message analysis"
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Impact: What could have taken 3-4 days of research and experimentation took 6 hours. Copilot CLI helped me understand NLP approaches I'd never used before.

🐛 2. Debugging the "enrichedCommits" Error

The Bug: My code kept throwing "Cannot access 'enrichedCommits' before initialization" - a JavaScript temporal dead zone error.

What I Did:

gh copilot explain "Why am I getting 'Cannot access enrichedCommits 
before initialization' in this async function?"
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Then pasted my problematic code.

Copilot's Analysis: It immediately identified that I was using the variable before declaring it due to incorrect async/await ordering. It showed me the exact line and explained the fix.

Impact: Debugged in 5 minutes instead of potentially hours. The explanation also taught me about JavaScript's temporal dead zone, making me a better developer.

🎨 3. Creating ASCII Art Visualizations

The Challenge: I wanted beautiful ASCII timelines but had zero experience creating them.

What I Did:

gh copilot suggest "Create a Node.js function that generates an ASCII 
timeline from an array of git commits with dates and descriptions"
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Copilot's Output: It generated a complete working implementation using Unicode box-drawing characters. I then iterated:

gh copilot suggest "How can I add branch points and merge indicators 
to this ASCII timeline using Unicode characters?"
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This led to the branching visualizations you see in the tool.

Impact: Went from "I have no idea how to do this" to a working, beautiful visualization in under an hour.

💡 4. Feature Ideation

Some of my best features came from asking Copilot "what if" questions:

gh copilot suggest "What are creative ways to visualize contributor 
activity patterns in a terminal application?"
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Result: Copilot suggested:

  • Activity heatmaps (implemented! ✅)
  • Contribution streaks (implemented! ✅)
  • Time-of-day analysis (on roadmap)
  • Collaboration graphs (future feature)

Impact: Added features I hadn't even thought of. The contributor spotlight feature was directly inspired by this conversation.

🧪 5. Writing Tests

The Challenge: Testing git operations is complex - how do you mock git commands?

What I Did:

gh copilot suggest "How do I write unit tests for a function that 
parses git log output without actually running git commands?"
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Copilot's Guidance: It explained:

  • Using test fixtures (sample git output)
  • Mocking the simple-git library
  • Structuring tests for async operations

Then it generated example test cases I could adapt.

Impact: Got from 0% to 85% test coverage in one day. Would have taken 3-4 days without Copilot's help.

🚀 6. Performance Optimization

The Problem: Processing 10,000+ commits was taking minutes.

What I Did:

gh copilot suggest "How can I optimize this Node.js code that processes 
large arrays of git commits? Current implementation is too slow"
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Copilot's Suggestions:

  • Streaming instead of loading everything into memory
  • Lazy loading for enriched commit data
  • Caching frequently accessed data
  • Using Promise.all() for parallel processing

Impact: 10x performance improvement. The tool now handles massive repos like the Linux kernel gracefully.

📝 7. Documentation Generation

The Challenge: Writing comprehensive documentation is time-consuming.

What I Did:

gh copilot suggest "Generate comprehensive CLI usage documentation 
for a tool with these commands: story, timeline, contributors, 
release-notes, export, stats"
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Result: Copilot created a well-structured documentation template with:

  • Clear command descriptions
  • Usage examples
  • Common use cases
  • Troubleshooting tips

I refined and personalized it, but the foundation saved hours of work.

Impact: Professional documentation completed in 2 hours instead of a full day.

🎯 Overall Impact of GitHub Copilot CLI

Time Saved: Estimated 2-3 weeks of development time

Quality Improved:

  • Better architecture (learned new patterns)
  • More features (ideas I wouldn't have thought of)
  • Higher test coverage (85% vs. my usual 60%)
  • Better performance (learned optimization techniques)

Learning Accelerated:

  • Discovered NLP techniques
  • Learned advanced async/await patterns
  • Understood Unicode box-drawing
  • Improved testing practices

Confidence Boosted: I tackled complex problems I'd normally avoid because I had an expert available to guide me through them.

💬 The Conversational Difference

What made Copilot CLI special wasn't just code generation - it was the conversation. Instead of:

  1. Google search
  2. Read Stack Overflow
  3. Try solution
  4. Fail
  5. Repeat

I could just ask about my specific problem and get tailored guidance. It felt like pair programming with a senior developer who's always available, never judgmental, and infinitely patient.

Technical Highlights

🛠️ Built With

  • Node.js - Runtime environment
  • Commander.js - CLI framework
  • simple-git - Git operations
  • chalk & gradient-string - Beautiful terminal colors
  • boxen & cli-table3 - Elegant formatting
  • inquirer - Interactive prompts
  • ora - Loading spinners
  • marked & marked-terminal - Markdown rendering
  • asciichart - ASCII charts
  • figlet - ASCII art text

📊 Project Stats

  • Lines of Code: ~2,800
  • Development Time: 10 days
  • Test Coverage: 85%
  • npm Downloads: [Growing!]
  • GitHub Stars: [Give me one! ⭐]

🎨 Key Features Implementation

1. Smart Commit Analysis

// Groups commits by semantic similarity
// Detects patterns in file changes
// Identifies refactoring vs. new features
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2. Milestone Detection

  • First commit detection
  • Version tag parsing (semantic versioning)
  • Major refactor identification (high churn)
  • Documentation update recognition
  • Test coverage improvements

3. Beautiful Output

  • 4 color themes (Classic, Hacker, Sunset, Ocean)
  • Responsive terminal width detection
  • Unicode support with ASCII fallbacks
  • Progress indicators for long operations

What's Next

I'm planning to add:

  • 🤖 AI-powered commit quality scoring - Analyze commit message quality
  • 📊 More visualization types - Dependency graphs, code churn heatmaps
  • 🌐 Web version - Interactive timeline in the browser
  • 🔌 GitHub/GitLab integration - Include issues and PRs in the story
  • 🎤 Audio narration - Hear your git story read aloud
  • 📱 Mobile companion app - View stories on mobile
  • 🎓 Learning mode - Analyze successful open-source projects

Try It Today! 🚀 

# Install
npm install -g terminal-time-machine

# Use it
cd your-favorite-project
ttm story
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Links:

About Me

I'm Mayuresh Shitole, a solo founder at Ambicube Limited UK in the UK. I love building tools that make developers' lives easier and help teams communicate better about technical work.

This project combines my passion for storytelling, developer tools, and beautiful terminal UIs. I believe every codebase has a story worth telling.

Connect with me:

Acknowledgments

Huge thanks to:

  • GitHub for sponsoring this challenge and building Copilot CLI
  • DEV Community for providing this amazing platform
  • You for reading this far! 🙏

Final Thoughts

Building Terminal Time Machine taught me that the best tools solve problems people didn't know they had. Everyone accepts that git logs are boring - but they don't have to be!

GitHub Copilot CLI was instrumental in turning this idea into reality. It wasn't just about writing code faster - it was about:

  • Learning new techniques
  • Exploring ideas I'd normally avoid
  • Shipping a polished product
  • Having fun while building

If you've ever wanted to see your git history come alive, give Terminal Time Machine a try. And if you're participating in hackathons or challenges, definitely use Copilot CLI - it's like having a senior developer on your team who never sleeps.

May your commits be meaningful and your git history epic! 🕰️✨

Top comments (2)

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pegasusryug20_2d6ee71068a profile image
Pegasusryug20 •

amazing project mayuresh, always been reading your rust projects great to see your javascript contribution

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mayu2008 profile image
Mayuresh Smita Suresh •

Thank you