OPEN SOURCE · GIT TIMELINE TOOL

Backdate Your Git History with Ease

Git Legends is a free, open-source command-line tool that empowers you to manipulate Git timelines like a legend. With Git Legends, you can create repositories and Git events (commits, branches, merges, pull requests) on specified past dates – as if you had a time machine for Git. This tool is designed for everyone from Git power-users and full-stack software engineers to DevOps professionals and open-source maintainers who need to craft or reconstruct repository history for demonstrations, testing, or educational purposes.

$git clone https://github.com/legends-cli/legends.git
terminal
$ legends backdate --start "2023-01-01" --commits 365
Generating history... [====================] 100%
+ Created commit: "Initial structure" (2023-01-01)
+ Created commit: "Add core modules" (2023-01-02)
+ Created branch: feature/analytics (2023-02-15)
+ Merged branch: feature/analytics (2023-02-20)
$ git log --oneline --graph
* a1b2c3d (HEAD -> main) Merge branch 'feature/analytics'
|\
| * e5f6g7h Add analytics engine
| * i8j9k0l Setup tracking
* m1n2o3p Update README.md

Simulate a Year’s Work

Easily generate a repository with commits spread over months or years. If you want your project to look like development started last year, Git Legends has you covered.

Restore Lost History

Forgot to commit code from weeks ago? Need to re-create a timeline of changes? Git Legends allows you to retroactively add commits on the dates they should have occurred.

Demonstrate and Educate

Create realistic demo repositories for workshops or tutorials. Show a progressive commit history – complete with feature branches and merge commits – to better illustrate best practices in Git.

Git Legends integrates with Git and GitHub seamlessly to ensure that backdated events appear authentic. All commit timestamps, branch creation points, and merge dates can be tailored to your needs. The tool leverages Git’s own features (like environment variable overrides for commit dates) under the hood, so the history looks natural and credible. Developers exploring your repository won’t be able to tell the timeline was scripted after the fact.

Why Backdate Git History?

Whether you’re aiming to fill in missing commits or just have fun generating a convincing commit graph, Git Legends makes the process quick and automated.

Unlike manual Git commands or ad-hoc scripts, Git Legends provides a cohesive, user-friendly interface to specify dates and automate complex sequences of Git operations.

This ensures you can focus on the story your repository is telling, rather than fiddling with low-level details.

Focus on the story
No fiddling with low-level details
Quick and automated process

Get Started Now

Git Legends is free to use and works on major platforms (Linux, macOS, Windows). It only requires Git and the GitHub CLI to get going. To install Git Legends, you can simply run brew install legends on macOS (via Homebrew). Linux and macOS users can also use our one-line installer script:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mrakbook/legends/main/install.sh | bash

Ready to try it? Visit our GitHub repo to download Git Legends and start crafting your legendary commit history today. Check out the Features page to see what you can do, or read How It Works for a technical deep dive into the tool.