Skill v1.0.0
currentTrusted Publisher100/100version: "1.0.0" name: author-contributions description: Identify all files a specific author contributed to on a branch vs its upstream, tracing code through renames. Use when asked who edited what, what code an author contributed, or to audit authorship before a merge. This skill should be run as a subagent — it performs many git operations and returns a concise table.
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
.pyscript, run it, then delete it. - Author matching is exact. Always run step 1 first.
--authordoes 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 MCPget_metool orgit logoutput 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, osos.chdir('<repo_root>')UPSTREAM = 'main'AUTHOR = '<Author Name>' # Resolve via `git log` or GitHub MCP `get_me`# Step 2: author's filescommits = 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 commitsall_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:continueparts = line.split('\t')if len(parts) >= 3 and 'R' in parts[0]:rename_map.setdefault(parts[2], set()).add(parts[1])# Step 4: merge diffdiff_files = subprocess.check_output(['git', 'diff', '--name-only', f'{UPSTREAM}..HEAD'],text=True).strip().split('\n')# Step 5: classifyresults = []for f in (x for x in diff_files if x):if f in author_files:results.append(('DIRECT', f))else:# walk rename chainchain, to_check = set(), [f]while to_check:cur = to_check.pop()if cur in chain:continuechain.add(cur)to_check.extend(rename_map.get(cur, []))chain.discard(f)if chain & author_files:results.append(('VIA_RENAME', f))# Step 6: statsif results:stat = subprocess.check_output(['git', 'diff', '--stat', f'{UPSTREAM}..HEAD', '--'] +[f for _, f in results], text=True)print(stat)# Step 7: tablefor 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 maingit 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