A Simple Analogy

Getting commit counts is like counting items on a conveyor belt. Stop at the end to know the total, rather than counting each item individually.

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Why Count Commits?

• Statistics: Track project activity
• Analytics: Measure contributor productivity
• Reporting: Show development metrics
• Auditing: Document project history
• Attribution: Credit team contributions

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GitHub API Approach

using Octokit;

var client = new GitHubClient(new ProductHeaderValue("MyApp"));
var credentials = new Credentials("github_token");
client.Credentials = credentials;

// Get commit count efficiently
var commits = await client.Repository.Commits.GetAll(
    "owner",
    "repo",
    new CommitRequest { Since = new DateTime(2024, 1, 1) }
);

var totalCommits = commits.Count;
Console.WriteLine($"Total commits: {totalCommits}");

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REST API Direct

# Get commits with pagination
curl -H "Authorization: token YOUR_TOKEN" \
  "https://api.github.com/repos/OWNER/REPO/commits?per_page=1&page=999999"

# Check Link header for page count
# total_count = per_page × page_count

# Or use GraphQL for efficiency
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: bearer TOKEN" \
  -d '{"query":"{ repository(owner:\"OWNER\", name:\"REPO\") { object(expression:\"HEAD\") { ... on Commit { history { totalCount } } } } }"}' \
  https://api.github.com/graphql

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GraphQL Query

query {
  repository(owner: "owner", name: "repo") {
    defaultBranchRef {
      target {
        ... on Commit {
          history {
            totalCount
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

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Best Practices

1. Pagination: Use per_page=1 for large repos
2. Caching: Cache results, refresh periodically
3. Filtering: Filter by date range to narrow scope
4. GraphQL: More efficient than REST API
5. Rate limits: Use authenticated requests (higher limits)

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Related Concepts

• GitHub Statistics API
• Git log analysis
• Repository metrics
• Contributor analytics

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Summary

Count commits efficiently using GitHub's REST or GraphQL APIs. Use pagination strategies and caching to minimize API calls.