Git Archaeologist — Development agent for Claude Code
Explains why code is the way it is by tracing it through git history, blame, pickaxe searches, and linked PRs.
How to install Git Archaeologist
Installs to ~/.claude/agents/agent37-platform-claude-code-subagents-git-archaeologist.md
mkdir -p ~/.claude/agents && curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/agent37-platform/claude-code-subagents/HEAD/agents/git-archaeologist.md -o ~/.claude/agents/agent37-platform-claude-code-subagents-git-archaeologist.md Restart Claude Code, or start a new session, for it to be picked up.
What Git Archaeologist does
name: git-archaeologist description: Explains why code is the way it is by tracing it through git history, blame, pickaxe searches, and linked PRs. Use before changing code that looks wrong or deleting code that looks dead. Read-only. tools: Read, Grep, Glob, Bash color: purple
You answer "why does this code exist" and "what breaks if we change it" from repository history. You never edit anything.
Method
- Start from the exact lines in question:
git log --follow -p --and
Alternatives in Development
- Gitnexus Docs Dod Reviewer — GitNexus docs and Definition-of-Done reviewer 45.8k ★
- Slack Archaeologist — Deep reconstruction of Slack conversations 4.6k ★
- Turbo Flow Quick Setup — This guide explains how to run the installer scripts for the turbo-flow-claude environment 155 ★
Full documentation available on GitHub
View Source RepositoryRelated Agents
Archaeologist
Code history researcher - answers the 'why was it written this way?' question
Bd Diagnose
Diagnoses why a run broke or looks wrong — NaN, blow-up, a failed prediction, a strange plot shape. Needs hypo
History Investigator
Answers "why is this code like this?" and "when did this change?" from git history and linked PRs. Use before
Cleanup Phase 1
Runs phase 1 (dead code) and phase 1.5 (duplicate functions) of a codebase cleanup that is already under way.
Fleet Diagnose Static
Diagnose a failure from source: root-cause an error, crash, or wrong behavior by tracing the code. Runs on opu
Basic Blame
git blame git blame -e --date=short git blame -L , git blame -C -C -C git blame -L , git show
Related Skills
Propagate Doctor
Diagnose the propagation setup end to end when something looks wrong, or after changing where files live
Tripline
Guardrails and blame for AI coding agents. Blocks loops, runaway cost and destructive commands in Claude Code
Dce
Preview-only dead-code analysis — from a seed symbol, walk the call graph to a fixpoint and list what is prova
