vøiddo
tool · git / archaeology

when did
this happen?

git already knows the answer. you just don't remember which combination of log -S, blame, and --diff-filter=A you need this time. gitwhen is the mnemonic.

npm i -g @v0idd0/gitwhen
github → npm mit · free forever
four modes

one binary,
four ways to ask.

01 / string

when did this string appear?

runs git log --all -S and prints every commit that introduced or removed an exact string — oldest first.

$ gitwhen "TODO: deprecated"● a3c4b18 2026-03-14 alice — drop legacy queue path
● 7f1e602 2025-11-08 bob   — TODO before refactor
02 / line

what commit set this line?

parses git blame --porcelain for one line. you get hash, author, date, subject, and the line itself — nothing else to read.

$ gitwhen src/auth.ts:42 a3c4b18  2026-03-14  alice
   drop legacy queue path
   │ if (!ctx.session) throw …
03 / file

full life of a file

first-added, every delete, every re-add, last-touched. uses --diff-filter=A/D across all branches.

$ gitwhen --file legacy.py+ first added
   8a91c0e  2024-06-12  bob — initial port
× deleted
   1d4e88f  2025-09-04  alice — sunset legacy/
04 / regex

regex variant

same as string but with -G instead of -S — for “any console.log of pii” rather than one literal token.

$ gitwhen --regex \
    "console\.log\(.*pii.*\)"● 9c0a2d1 2024-08-22 carol — debug pii leak
● 7f1e602 2024-06-30 bob   — temporary trace
install

three places
it earns its keep.

npm

$ npm i -g @v0idd0/gitwhen

node 14+ on linux / macos / windows. zero runtime deps. needs git on $PATH.

regression guardrail

$ gitwhen --json \
  "OLD_DEPRECATED_API" \
  | jq -e '.count == 0' \
  || (echo "deprecated api is back"; exit 1)

drop into ci. blocks any branch that re-introduces a string you deliberately removed.

incident archaeology

$ gitwhen "$BAD_FUNCTION_NAME"

"when did this regression land?" is the most common p0 question. answer it without leaving the terminal.

why we built it

we googled "git log -S" for the eighth quarter in a row. that's when we accepted that the tool wasn't the bottleneck — the muscle memory was. so we wrapped it.

no telemetry. no signup. no “upgrade for the enterprise rule pack.” mit forever, even if vøiddo dies tomorrow — the source is public and the npm package is yours to fork.

star on github → all tools