Git Intelligence

basemind precomputes a per-repo git-history index backed by gix, resolving blame and diffs at symbol resolution. History queries return commits, authors, and paths as structured data in tens of microseconds — a pure accelerator that rebuilds automatically when history changes.

Note

Git tools require basemind serve to be running inside a git repository. The history index auto-builds on first use; if it is fresh (matching HEAD), the tools use it. Otherwise they walk history directly, so results are always current.

Core tools

All of the following are modes of the git MCP tool (basemind git <mode> on the CLI).

git recent

Recent commits with their affected files and summary lines.

{
  "mode": "recent",
  "limit": 10
}

Returns the newest commits first, paths modified in each, and author/message. Useful for “what happened in the last few hours?”

git touching

All commits that modified a given path, newest-first.

{
  "mode": "touching",
  "path": "src/scanner.rs"
}

Backed by a posting-list index, resolves in ~37 microseconds on a warm repo with thousands of commits.

git by-path

Commits matching a path pattern, like glob or prefix matching. The MCP mode is by_path; the CLI subcommand is by-path.

{
  "mode": "by_path",
  "pattern": "src/extract/**"
}

git blame

Per-line blame: who last changed each line and in which commit.

{
  "mode": "blame",
  "path": "src/scanner.rs"
}

Returns author, commit hash, and timestamp for every line.

git blame-symbol

Blame at symbol resolution: who last changed a specific function, type, or definition, and when its body last changed structurally. The MCP mode is blame_symbol; the CLI subcommand is blame-symbol.

{
  "mode": "blame_symbol",
  "path": "src/scanner.rs",
  "name": "process_file"
}

git diff

File contents diff across revisions.

{
  "mode": "diff",
  "path": "src/scanner.rs",
  "old": "HEAD~5",
  "new": "HEAD"
}

git diff-outline

Structural diff: which symbols were added, removed, or modified between revisions. The MCP mode is diff_outline; the CLI subcommand is diff-outline.

{
  "mode": "diff_outline",
  "path": "src/scanner.rs",
  "old": "HEAD~10",
  "new": "HEAD"
}

Shows + function_name, - removed_type, etc., without diffing implementation details.

git symbol-history

When a symbol’s body changed over time. Uses structural hashing to track modifications across commits. The MCP mode is symbol_history; the CLI subcommand is symbol-history.

{
  "mode": "symbol_history",
  "path": "src/scanner.rs",
  "name": "process_file"
}

Returns commits where this symbol’s implementation changed, useful for “when was this function last refactored?”

git churn

Files ranked by churn frequency. What changes the most?

{
  "mode": "churn",
  "limit": 20
}

git search

Full-text search over commit authors and messages across all branches.

{
  "mode": "search",
  "pattern": "fix.*index",
  "field": "message"
}

Search "author", "message", or "all" (default). Useful for “find commits mentioning the schema bump” or “what did Alice commit?”

git status

What’s staged and unstaged right now — the structured equivalent of git status.

{
  "mode": "status"
}

Performance

On a typical repo with 2,000–4,000 commits:

Query	Latency	Notes
git touching	~37 µs	Indexed posting-list lookup
git recent	~13 µs	Newest-first list scan
Index build	0.5–3.2 s	Depends on commit depth
Index size	6–22 % of .git	Space–time trade-off

The index is a pure accelerator: it rebuilds automatically when history is rewritten (rebase, force-push, filter-repo) and the tools fall back to live history walks if the index is stale.

Discipline

• Prefer git modes over shelling out to git log, git blame, git diff. Structured results cost fewer tokens to parse.
• Use git recent instead of parsing git log output. Get commit hashes, paths, and timestamps directly.
• Use git blame / git blame-symbol instead of shelling out to git blame. Symbol-level blame is more precise than line-level.
• Use git diff-outline for structural diffs. Skip implementation details and focus on what symbols changed.
• Use git search for commit message mining. Full-text search over message and author is cheaper than parsing the log.

Note

All paths are repository-relative. Lists are capped (limit, default 100, max 1000).

See also

Code intelligence · Document search