rewrite-dates
Redistributes commit timestamps to mimic natural human activity.
Usage
git-wrangler rewrite-dates [--start-date <YYYY-MM-DD>] [--end-date <YYYY-MM-DD>] [--confirm]What it does
Rewrites commit author and committer dates across all managed repositories using a statistically natural redistribution algorithm. Timestamps are spread across the given date range with:
- Stratified jitter — commits are evenly distributed across time slots, then randomly offset within each slot
- Bimodal time-of-day weighting — peaks at 10am and 3pm, matching real developer activity
- Weekend dampening — 65% of weekend commits are moved to adjacent Friday evening or Monday morning
- Micro-clustering — same-day commits are spaced 25–90 minutes apart
Options
| Flag | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
--start-date <YYYY-MM-DD> | Optional | Earliest date for redistributed commits. Defaults to the first commit date. |
--end-date <YYYY-MM-DD> | Optional | Latest date for redistributed commits. Defaults to the last commit date. |
--confirm | Optional | Skip the interactive confirmation prompt. |
Prerequisites
git-filter-repomust be installed- Python 3 must be available
Example
git-wrangler rewrite-dates --start-date 2024-01-01 --end-date 2024-12-31 --confirmNotes
Warning: This rewrites Git history. You will need to force-push to update remotes.
- Repositories with fewer than 2 commits are skipped
- A before/after summary is printed for review before the rewrite is applied
- The repository’s original timezone offset is inferred and preserved