About Git Log Parser

Parse git log output into structured JSON. Part of the DevTools Surf developer suite. Browse more tools in the Developer Utilities collection.

Use Cases

• Generating structured changelogs from raw git log output
• Analyzing commit frequency patterns for team retrospectives
• Extracting commit metadata for automated release notes
• Building contribution dashboards from parsed git history

Tips

• Paste raw git log output to get structured JSON with metadata
• Use the parsed output to build changelogs or commit analytics
• Include --stat output to capture file change information

Fun Facts

• Git was created by Linus Torvalds in April 2005 and was self-hosting within just 4 days of development — the first commit is dated April 7, 2005.
• The Linux kernel repository contains over 1.2 million commits from more than 20,000 contributors, making it one of the largest Git repositories in existence.
• Git's name is British slang for an unpleasant person — Linus Torvalds joked he names all his projects after himself.

FAQ

What git log format does it expect?

Standard `git log` output (with or without --format). Defaults to the commit-date-author-subject pattern.

What does it output?

JSON array of commits with hash, author, email, date, subject, and body fields. Ready for piping into other tools or visualizations.

Can I parse multiple repos?

One log at a time. For multi-repo analysis, concatenate logs with a repo-name prefix and split after parsing.

Does it handle merge commits?

Yes — merge commits are marked in the output (hasParents > 1). Useful for generating changelogs that skip merges.