RepoRetro: Ghost in the Repo — Unearthing Dead Code & Honoring Departed Contributors with Gemma & Entire

Description and use

RepoRetro analyzes repositories to uncover dead code, uses AI to infer intent, classifies relics, and honors departed contributors.

Problem

Mature codebases accumulate dead code and orphaned artifacts that linters flag for deletion, risking accidental removal of valuable legacy or unfinished work.

Outcome

RepoRetro enabled a mature repo to identify 7 relics, compute a 94/100 Haunt Score, and classify each relic, while honoring two departed contributors with poetic tributes.

Workflow

• Clone repository using provided credentials
• Run CLI scan or use web dashboard
• RepoRetro identifies dead code artifacts
• Calculates Haunt Score from metrics
• Correlates artifacts with Entire checkpoints
• Queries Gemma for historical rationale
• Classifies relics with Chesterton’s Fence verdict
• Displays results in dashboard and CLI report
• Honors departed contributors in Ofrenda tab

Evidence

RepoRetro builds a digital Ofrenda for your repository. It unearths abandoned code, calculates a multi-factor Haunt Score (0–100), queries past AI agent sessions via Entire, and uses Google’s open-weight Gemma to reconstruct the historical rationale before delivering a Chesterton’s Fence verdict

Source

RepoRetro serves an altar-inspired UI with real‑time analytics: Haunt Score Meter (0–100), Graveyard View, Chesterton’s Fence Badges

Source

RepoRetro inspects git commit trailers (Entire-Checkpoint: ...) and the git-native entire/checkpoints/v1 tree to recover the original human prompt, the agent’s chain‑of‑thought reasoning snippet, and why the feature was paused or abandoned mid‑architecture

Source