Code Archaeologist

Point at any code. Get a one-line answer to "why is this here?"

git blame tells you who. PR pages tell you what. Nothing tells you why — until now.

One keystroke. Full story. No AI key required.

How It Works

1. Select any code (or just place your cursor on a line)
2. Press Ctrl+Shift+Y (Cmd+Shift+Y on Mac) — or right-click → 🏺 Why is this here?
3. A side panel streams the answer: verdict → evidence → full timeline

That's it. Cold run ~2s, warm run ~1s.

Features

🔍 Three-layer answer — One-sentence verdict on top, relevant PR/commit evidence below, full timeline in a collapsible section

⚡ Fast — Single-batch GraphQL PR fetch, persistent 7-day cache at ~/.git-archaeology/cache/

🧹 Noise filter — Merge, dependabot, format-only commits are dimmed, never dropped

📋 Copy as PR comment — Turn any investigation into a Markdown snippet for code reviews

🔒 Privacy-first — All git ops run locally. PR data fetched via your own gh CLI. No telemetry. No third-party API keys. Ever.

Requirements

• VS Code ≥ 1.85
• git on PATH
• gh CLI authenticated — optional, but needed for PR enrichment

Roadmap

See ROADMAP.md — next up: Copilot-powered answer upgrade, standalone CLI, CodeLens integration.

License

MIT © 2026 Frank Liu