git-séance: I let the ghosts of deleted code speak at their own funeral

Description and use

git‑séance is a local CLI tool that extracts deleted file history from a repository, presents detailed facts for each, and generates a memorial page, keeping all data offline.

Problem

Repositories accumulate deleted files whose history and impact are forgotten, making it hard to understand legacy code and its contributors.

Outcome

git‑séance efficiently extracts deleted file history, presents factual ghost narratives, and builds a memorial page, all while running locally with no external data leakage.

Workflow

• Run git-seance --repo <repo> to list all deleted files and their metadata.
• Use git-seance summon <path> --repo <repo> to view a specific file’s ghost story.
• Generate an ofrenda with git-seance ofrenda --n <number> to create a memorial page for the top N longest‑lived files.

Evidence

git‑séance holds a séance for them. It’s a small command‑line tool that: 1) finds every file that ever died in a repository’s history; 2) lets each ghost speak…

Source

$ git‑seance --repo express 🪦 684 files rest in the history of express. The longest‑lived: ⚰️ benchmarks/run 15.7 years ✝ 2026‑01‑17 …

Source

git log --diff-filter=D ──► every deleted path (skipping any that were brought back) …

Source