GitHub Insights

Analyze GitHub commit activity for hackathon submissions. See commit timelines, contributor counts, repo metadata, and pre-event activity flags.

GitHub Insights is currently in Beta and available on the Starter plan and above.

When a submission includes a GitHub repository URL, HackHQ automatically analyzes the repository's commit activity and displays insights in the organizer's submission detail panel. This helps you understand how teams worked during the hackathon.

How it works

GitHub Insights activates automatically when a participant submits a GitHub URL in any URL field on the submission form. HackHQ fetches the repository's commit history and cross-references it with your event's start and end dates. No setup required from participants or organizers.

What you see

Repository metadata

For each GitHub repository linked in a submission, you'll see:

Repo created date: When the repository was created, with a color indicator showing whether it was created before, during, or after the event
Contributors: How many unique committers vs. the registered team size
Fork status: Whether the repo is an original or a fork (and what it was forked from)
Commit count: Total commits in the repository
Languages: Programming languages used, ranked by percentage

Commit timeline

A visual chart showing commit activity over time, with your event's start and end dates marked. This makes it easy to see at a glance when the work was done.

Commit summary

A breakdown of commits and lines of code (additions/deletions) split into three periods:

Before event: Commits made before the event start date
During event: Commits made between the event start and end dates
After event: Commits made after the event end date

Pre-event activity flag

If commits are detected before your event's start date, an info banner appears highlighting the pre-event activity with the number of commits and lines added. This helps you identify submissions that may have started before the hackathon began.

What this means for organizers

GitHub Insights gives you transparency into how projects were built:

Verify hackathon effort: See if the bulk of the work happened during the event window
Spot pre-existing code: The pre-event flag highlights repos with significant activity before the hackathon started
Understand team dynamics: Compare contributor count to registered team size
Check for forks: Identify projects that forked from existing repositories

GitHub Insights analyzes public repositories only. Private repositories will show an error message. The analysis is read-only and does not require any GitHub authentication from participants.