# Git History Visualization

## Problem

Currently, users can create and manage git repositories, but they have no way to view the commit history, branches, or understand the repository structure. This makes it impossible to:
- See what commits exist in a repository
- Understand branch relationships and merges
- View commit details (message, author, date, changes)
- Explore the repository's evolution over time

## Solution

Build an interactive git history visualization similar to GitKraken that provides:
1. **Graph View**: Visual commit graph showing branches, merges, and commit relationships
2. **List View**: Linear commit log with details
3. **Commit Details**: Click any commit to see full details and diff
4. **Branch Visualization**: See all branches and their relationships

## Benefits

- **Understand repository structure** at a glance
- **Track changes** and see who made what changes when
- **Navigate history** easily without using command line
- **Review code** by examining commit diffs

## Scope

### What we're building:
- Backend API to extract git history from bare/mirror repos using git CLI
- Graph visualization component (SVG-based commit graph)
- List view component (linear commit log)
- Commit detail panel (message, author, date, diff)
- View toggle (graph vs list)
- Branch label display

### Out of scope (future enhancements):
- Interactive branch operations (checkout, merge, rebase)
- Tag management
- File browser at specific commits
- Blame/annotation view
- Advanced filtering/search

## Technical Approach

**Backend**: Execute `git log --graph --format=...` commands to get structured commit data
**Frontend**: Custom SVG rendering for graph, React components for list view and details panel