Git log as archaeology

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The source file you’re looking at is a summary. The history is the full document. Most of the time you don’t care – you’re working on the current shape of the code and the summary is enough. But sometimes the current shape stops answering.

I reach for git history during RCAs, bug hunts, and questions the code can’t answer from its current form. Why is this file organised this way? Who introduced this assumption? When did this fallback stop being a fallback and start being the main path? The commit log knows. The current source doesn’t.

Rca on vnykmshr

Git log as archaeology