How to Check User Activity on GitHub

On the profile page, you will find several sections like:

• Overview: A summary of the user’s public repositories, stars, followers, and following.
• Repositories: The user’s public repositories listed along with details such as the last commit and the number of stars and forks.
• Contributions: This shows a heatmap of their contributions in the past year, including commits, pull requests, issues, and more.
• Pinned Repositories: The repositories that the user has chosen to highlight.

2. Checking Contribution Graph

The contribution graph, located at the top of a user’s profile page, is an excellent way to check their activity. It visually displays their daily contributions over the past year. The contributions can include:

• Commits: Code updates made to repositories.
• Pull Requests: Submitting or reviewing code changes.
• Issues: Reporting or discussing bugs and features.
• Discussions: Participation in repository discussions.

By clicking on the contribution graph, you can gain insights into the user’s activity over specific periods (e.g., the past week, month, or year). This can help you assess how frequently they are contributing and which days of the week they are most active.

3. Explore User’s Repositories

A major part of checking user activity on GitHub is reviewing the repositories they have created, contributed to, or forked. On the user’s profile page, there will be a section dedicated to their repositories. Here’s what you can find:

• Created Repositories: These are the repositories the user has created. The list will display the name, description, number of stars, forks, and the last update time.
• Contributed Repositories: These include repositories the user has contributed to, even if they don’t own them. Contributions could involve commits, pull requests, or other forms of collaboration.
• Forked Repositories: A fork is a personal copy of someone else’s repository, and it indicates the user is working on a project that they did not initially create.

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You can view detailed information about each repository by clicking on its name. Each repository will show a list of commits, branches, and pull requests, helping you understand the user’s level of involvement.

4. Analyzing the Commit History

For a more detailed analysis of a user’s coding activity, reviewing their commit history is critical. Each repository on GitHub has a commit history that can be accessed via the “Commits” section in the repository’s interface. The commit history shows:

• What was changed: A summary of the changes made in the code (e.g., “Fixed bug in login module”).
• Who made the change: The author’s GitHub username.
• When the change was made: The exact date and time of the commit.
• Commit messages: Descriptions written by the user about the changes.

By clicking on individual commits, you can explore further details, such as the files modified, added, or deleted.

5. Using GitHub’s API

For a more advanced way to track user activity, GitHub provides an API that developers can use to fetch data programmatically. The API allows you to check a user’s public activity in real time, including their commits, pull requests, and issues. Using GitHub’s REST API, you can send requests to fetch a user’s data, such as:

• /users/[username]/events: Fetch events associated with a user, including their commits, pull requests, and issue comments.
• /users/[username]/repos: List the repositories owned by a user.
• /repos/[owner]/[repo]/commits: Fetch commits for a specific repository.

For this, you’ll need some basic knowledge of API usage, but it’s a powerful tool for tracking activity programmatically.

6. Third-Party Tools

If you prefer not to dig into the GitHub API yourself, there are several third-party tools and platforms that can help you track and analyze GitHub user activity. Some popular options include:

• GitHub Activity Tracker: Offers insights into a user’s GitHub activity, including repositories, commits, and pull requests.
• Sourcegraph: Provides a more advanced search of GitHub repositories, allowing you to see who contributed what to a project.
• Codetree: A tool for organizing and viewing GitHub projects, it also provides activity tracking features.

7. Checking Issue and Pull Request Activity

In addition to commits and repository contributions, GitHub users often engage in issues and pull requests. You can explore these activities under the “Issues” and “Pull requests” tabs of the user’s profile page. Here, you will see:

• Open and Closed Issues: Reports of bugs, tasks, or feature requests they have filed or commented on.
• Pull Requests: Contributions they’ve made to repositories in the form of pull requests, either by proposing code changes or reviewing others’ work.

Conclusion

Tracking user activity on GitHub can be done through various methods, from simply exploring their profile to using the GitHub API for a more in-depth analysis. Whether you’re a fellow developer looking to collaborate, a recruiter evaluating potential hires, or just curious about a specific user, these methods offer valuable insights into their work on the platform.