repo topography
A folder tree shows what's there. It does not show what matters.
Drop a git log --numstat dump and watch your repo become terrain:
tall files are heavily-edited; bright ridges are recent. The peaks are where
the work happened. The dark plains are where the comments lied.
generate the input:
git log --since=1.year --numstat --pretty=format:'%H|%at' cold plains foothills peaks recent ridges
tallest peaks
how to read the map
- tile size — proportional to total churn (additions + deletions over the period).
- tile fill — denser fill = more commits touching the file.
- bright top edge — file was edited in the last 30 days. Recent ridges are alive.
- ascii mode — the same data rendered as a literal density grid using
. : - = #.
Folder trees flatten everything into siblings. This map weights by what you've actually touched. The first time you see your real codebase as terrain, you'll notice that a quarter of it is dead weight and there's a single mountain you cannot stop climbing.