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When asked to find all files a specific author contributed to on a branch (compared to main or another upstream), follow this procedure. The goal is to produce a simple table that both humans and LLMs can consume.
Run as a Subagent
This skill involves many sequential git commands. Delegate it to a subagent with a prompt like:
Find every file that author "Full Name" contributed to on branch <branch> compared to <upstream>. Trace contributions through file renames. Return a markdown table with columns: Status (DIRECT or VIA_RENAME), File Path, and Lines (+/-). Include a summary line at the end.
Procedure
1. Identify the author's exact git identity
git log --format="%an <%ae>" <upstream>..<branch> | sort -u
Match the requested person to their exact --author= string. Do not guess — short usernames won't match full display names (resolve via git log or the GitHub MCP get_me tool).
2. Collect all files the author directly committed to
git log --author="<Exact Name>" --format="%H" <upstream>..<branch>
For each commit hash, extract touched files:
git diff-tree --no-commit-id --name-only -r <hash>
Union all results into a set (author_files).
3. Build rename map across the entire branch
For every commit on the branch (not just the author's), extract renames:
git diff-tree --no-commit-id -r -M <hash>
Parse lines with R status to build a map: new_path → {old_paths}.
4. Get the merge diff file list
git diff --name-only <upstream>..<branch>
These are the files that will actually land when the branch merges.
5. Classify each file in the merge diff
For each file in step 4:
- If it's in
author_files → DIRECT
- Else, walk the rename map transitively (follow chains: current → old → older) and check if any ancestor is in
author_files → VIA_RENAME
- Otherwise → not this author's contribution
6. Get diff stats
git diff --stat <upstream>..<branch> -- <file1> <file2> ...
7. Return the table
Format the result as a markdown table:
| Status | File | +/- |
|--------|------|-----|
| DIRECT | src/vs/foo/bar.ts | +120/-5 |
| VIA_RENAME | src/vs/baz/qux.ts | +300 |
| ... | ... | ... |
**Total: N files, +X/-Y lines**
Important Notes
- Use Python for the heavy lifting. Shell loops with inline comments break in zsh. Write a temp
.py script, run it, then delete it.
- Author matching is exact. Always run step 1 first.
--author does substring matching but you must verify the right person is matched (e.g., don't match "Joshua Smith" when looking for "Josh S."). Use the GitHub MCP get_me tool or git log output to resolve the correct full name.
- Renames can be multi-hop. A file may have moved
contrib/chat/ → agentSessions/ → sessions/. The rename map must be walked transitively.
- Only report files in the merge diff (step 4). Files the author touched that were later deleted entirely should not appear — they won't land in the upstream.
- The rename map must include all authors' commits , not just the target author's. Other people often do the rename commits (e.g., bulk refactors/moves).
Example Python Script
import subprocess, os
os.chdir('<repo_root>')
UPSTREAM = 'main'
AUTHOR = '<Author Name>' # Resolve via `git log` or GitHub MCP `get_me`
# Step 2: author's files
commits = subprocess.check_output(
['git', 'log', f'--author={AUTHOR}', '--format=%H', f'{UPSTREAM}..HEAD'],
text=True).strip().split('\n')
author_files = set()
for h in (c for c in commits if c):
files = subprocess.check_output(
['git', 'diff-tree', '--no-commit-id', '--name-only', '-r', h],
text=True).strip().split('\n')
author_files.update(f for f in files if f)
# Step 3: rename map from ALL commits
all_commits = subprocess.check_output(
['git', 'log', '--format=%H', f'{UPSTREAM}..HEAD'],
text=True).strip().split('\n')
rename_map = {} # new_name -> set(old_names)
for h in (c for c in all_commits if c):
out = subprocess.check_output(
['git', 'diff-tree', '--no-commit-id', '-r', '-M', h],
text=True, timeout=5).strip()
for line in out.split('\n'):
if not line:
continue
parts = line.split('\t')
if len(parts) >= 3 and 'R' in parts[0]:
rename_map.setdefault(parts[2], set()).add(parts[1])
# Step 4: merge diff
diff_files = subprocess.check_output(
['git', 'diff', '--name-only', f'{UPSTREAM}..HEAD'],
text=True).strip().split('\n')
# Step 5: classify
results = []
for f in (x for x in diff_files if x):
if f in author_files:
results.append(('DIRECT', f))
else:
# walk rename chain
chain, to_check = set(), [f]
while to_check:
cur = to_check.pop()
if cur in chain:
continue
chain.add(cur)
to_check.extend(rename_map.get(cur, []))
chain.discard(f)
if chain & author_files:
results.append(('VIA_RENAME', f))
# Step 6: stats
if results:
stat = subprocess.check_output(
['git', 'diff', '--stat', f'{UPSTREAM}..HEAD', '--'] +
[f for _, f in results], text=True)
print(stat)
# Step 7: table
for kind, f in sorted(results, key=lambda x: x[1]):
print(f'| {kind:12s} | {f} |')
print(f'\nTotal: {len(results)} files')
Alternative Script
After following the process above, run this script to cross-check files touched by an author against the branch diff. You can do this both with an without src/vs/sessions.
AUTHOR=""
# 1. Find commits by author on this branch (not on main)
git log main...HEAD --author="$AUTHOR" --format="%H"
# 2. Get unique files touched across all those commits, excluding src/vs/sessions/
git log main...HEAD --author="$AUTHOR" --format="%H" \
| xargs -I{} git diff-tree --no-commit-id -r --name-only {} \
| sort -u \
| grep -v '^src/vs/sessions/'
# 3. Cross-reference with branch diff to keep only files still changed vs main
git log main...HEAD --author="$AUTHOR" --format="%H" \
| xargs -I{} git diff-tree --no-commit-id -r --name-only {} \
| sort -u \
| grep -v '^src/vs/sessions/' \
| while read f; do git diff main...HEAD --name-only -- "$f" 2>/dev/null; done \
| sort -u
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