commit-archeologist: figure out why any line of code exists
Walks git blame back through every rewrite, follows each commit to its PR, the PR to its issue, and the issue to the original Slack/Linear thread — answers "why does this code exist?"
commit-archeologist
When to invoke
Inputs
The algorithm
Step 1 — Anchor the line(s)
Step 2 — Walk the rewrites
Step 3 — Commits → PRs
Step 4 — PRs → Issues → Conversations
--- name: commit-archeologist description: Reconstructs the actual story behind any line of code — walks git blame back through every rewrite, follows each commit to its PR, the PR to its linked issue, and the issue to the Slack/Linear discussion that started it. Trigger when the user asks "why does this exist?", "who decided this?", "why is this written this way?", or highlights a confusing block and asks for context. Combines git, GitHub, Slack, and Linear MCP integrations into a single causal trace. --- # commit-archeologist > *"This `setTimeout(0)` was added in PR #1247 (2022) to fix a Stripe webhook race for ACME Corp. It was deleted in PR #1389 — same bug came back. Re-added with the comment 'do not remove' which was later eaten by a formatter pass in PR #1502."* A skill that answers the one question `git blame` never quite answers: **why does this code exist?** It walks each line back through every rewrite, follows the commit to the PR, the PR to the issue, and the issue to…
By @meliwat - License: -
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