GitHub Organization Code Frequency Report Action

A GitHub Action to generate a report that contains code frequency metrics and programming languages used per repository belonging to a GitHub organization.

Usage

The example workflow below runs on a monthly schedule using the amount of weeks as an interval set in the workflow (default 4 weeks) and alternatively can also be triggered manually using a workflow_dispatch event.

name: Code Frequency Action

on:
  schedule:
    # Runs on the first day of the month at 00:00 UTC
    #
    #        ┌────────────── minute
    #        │ ┌──────────── hour
    #        │ │ ┌────────── day (month)
    #        │ │ │ ┌──────── month
    #        │ │ │ │ ┌────── day (week)
    - cron: '0 0 1 * *'
  workflow_dispatch:
    inputs:
      fromdate:
        description: 'Optional interval start date (format: yyyy-mm-dd)'
        required: false # Skipped if workflow dispatch input is not provided
      todate:
        description: 'Optional interval end date (format: yyyy-mm-dd)'
        required: false # Skipped if workflow dispatch input is not provided

jobs:
  code-frequency-report:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: Code Frequency Report
        uses: nicklegan/github-org-code-frequency-action@v2.1.0
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.ORG_TOKEN }}
          fromdate: ${{ github.event.inputs.fromdate }} # Used for workflow dispatch input
          todate: ${{ github.event.inputs.todate }} # Used for workflow dispatch input
        # org: ''
        # weeks: '4'
        # sort: 'additions'
        # sort-order: 'desc'
        # json: 'false'
        # appid: ${{ secrets.APPID }}
        # privatekey: ${{ secrets.PRIVATEKEY }}
        # installationid: ${{ secrets.INSTALLATIONID }}

GitHub secrets

Name	Value	Required
ORG_TOKEN	A repo, read:orgscoped Personal Access Token	true
ACTIONS_STEP_DEBUG	true Enables diagnostic logging	false

💡 Disable token expiration to avoid failed workflow runs when running on a schedule.

Action inputs

Name	Description	Default	Options	Required
org	Organization different than workflow context			false
weeks	Amount of weeks in the past to collect data for (weeks start on Sunday 00:00:00 GMT)	4		false
sort	Column used to sort the acquired code frequency data	additions	repoName, additions, deletions, alltimeAdditions, alltimeDeletions, primaryLanguage, createdDate	false
sort-order	Selected column sorting direction	desc	desc, asc	false
json	Generate an additional report in JSON format	false	true, false	false
committer-name	The name of the committer that will appear in the Git history	github-actions		false
committer-email	The committer email that will appear in the Git history	github-actions@github.com		false

Workflow dispatch inputs

The additional option to retrieve code frequency data using a custom date interval. If the below fields are left empty during workflow dispatch input, the default interval option of set weeks from the current date configured in main.yml will be used instead.

💡 The result data includes the weeks which have their start date (Sunday 00:00:00 GMT) within the set interval.

Name	Value	Required
Optional interval start date	A date matching the format yyyy-mm-dd	false
Optional interval end date	A date matching the format yyyy-mm-dd	false

CSV/JSON layout

The results of the 2nd and 3rd report column will be the sum of code frequency date for the selected interval per organization repository.

Column	JSON	Description
Repository	repoName	Organization owned repository
Lines added (interval)	additions	Number of lines of code added during set interval
Lines deleted (interval)	deletions	Number of lines of code deleted during set interval
All time lines added	alltimeAdditions	Number of lines of code added since repo creation
All time lines deleted	alltimeDeletions	Number of lines of code deleted since repo creation
Primary language	primaryLanguage	The primary programming language used in the repo
All languages	allLanguages	All programming languages used in the repo
Repo creation date	createdDate	Date the repo has been created

A CSV report file to be saved in the repository reports folder using the following naming format: organization-date-interval.csv.

GitHub App authentication

As an alternative you can use GitHub App authentication to generate the report. For larger organizations it is recommended to use this method as more API requests per hour are allowed which will avoid running into rate limit errors.

Register a new organization/personal owned GitHub App with the below permissions:

GitHub App Permission	Access
Repository Permissions:Contents	read and write
Organization Permissions:Administration	read

After registration install the GitHub App to your organization. Store the below App values as secrets.

GitHub App secrets

Name	Value	Required
APPID	GitHub App ID number	true
PRIVATEKEY	Content of private key .pem file	true
INSTALLATIONID	GitHub App installation ID number	true