GitHub User Activity CLI

A command-line tool that fetches and displays recent GitHub user activity in a clean, human-readable format.

Overview

This tool aggregates GitHub user events from the public GitHub API and presents them in a summarized format, making it easy to quickly see what a user has been up to across their repositories.

Read more about the project here

Features

• Activity Aggregation: Groups similar events to reduce noise and provide cleaner output
• Multiple Event Types: Supports PushEvent, PullRequestEvent, IssuesEvent, and ForkEvent
• Simple Interface: Easy-to-use command-line interface
• Rate Limit Aware: Built-in timeout and error handling for API requests
• Clean Architecture: Well-structured codebase with separation of concerns

Prerequisites

• Go 1.25.4 or later
• Internet connection to access GitHub's API

Installation

From Source

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/MiguelMachado-dev/github-user-activity-cli.git
cd github-user-activity-cli

2. Build the application:

go build -o github-activity ./cmd/main.go

3. (Optional) Move the binary to your PATH:

sudo mv github-activity /usr/local/bin/

Usage

Basic Usage

# Using the built binary
./github-activity <github-username>

# Example
./github-activity torvalds

Using Go Run

go run ./cmd/main.go <github-username>

Help

If no username is provided, the tool will display usage instructions:

./github-activity
# Output: Please, provide a Github Username. Usage: github-activity <github-username>

Architecture

The project follows a clean architecture pattern with three distinct layers:

1. Presentation Layer (cmd/)

• Main.go: Entry point that handles CLI arguments and orchestrates the application flow
• Manages dependency injection between layers

2. Business Logic Layer (internal/service/)

• UserActivityService: Contains the core logic for processing and aggregating user activity data
• Implements intelligent grouping of events by type and repository
• Converts raw GitHub events into human-readable summaries

3. Data Access Layer (internal/repository/)

• UserActivityRepository: Handles communication with the GitHub API
• Implements HTTP client with timeout configuration
• Manages API response parsing and error handling

4. Models (internal/model/)

• UserActivity: Data structures representing GitHub API responses
• Defines all supported GitHub event types and their properties

Project Structure

github-user-activity-cli/
├── cmd/
│   └── main.go                           # Application entry point
├── internal/
│   ├── model/
│   │   └── user_activity.go              # Data models and structs
│   ├── repository/
│   │   └── user_activity_repository.go   # GitHub API client
│   └── service/
│       └── user_activity_service.go      # Business logic
├── go.mod                                # Go module definition
└── README.md                             # This file

Example Output

Active User Example

./github-activity octocat

Output:

Recent activity for user octocat:
- Pushed to octocat/Hello-World (3 events)
- Pull request activity in octocat/Spoon-Knife
- Forked repository octocat/Octocat-Repo
- Issue activity in octocat/git-consortium (2 events)

Inactive or New User Example

./github-activity newuser123

Output:

No recent activity found for user newuser123

Error Handling

The tool handles various error scenarios gracefully:

Network Errors

Error fetching user activity: failed to fetch user activity: Get "https://api.github.com/users/invalid-username/events": context deadline exceeded

Invalid Username

Error fetching user activity: failed to fetch user activity: received status code 404

API Rate Limiting

Error fetching user activity: failed to fetch user activity: received status code 403

Supported Event Types

The tool currently processes and aggregates the following GitHub event types:

Event Type	Description	Example Output
PushEvent	Code pushes to repositories	Pushed to username/repo (3 events)
PullRequestEvent	Pull request activities (opened, closed, merged)	Pull request activity in username/repo
IssuesEvent	Issue activities (opened, closed, labeled)	Issue activity in username/repo (2 events)
ForkEvent	Repository forking	Forked repository username/repo

Event Aggregation

Events are intelligently grouped by:

• Event type (PushEvent, PullRequestEvent, etc.)
• Repository name

This reduces duplicate entries and provides a cleaner summary of user activity.

API Details

• Base URL: https://api.github.com/users
• Endpoint: /{username}/events
• Rate Limiting: Subject to GitHub's unauthenticated API limits (60 requests per hour)
• Timeout: 10 seconds per request
• Authentication: None required (uses public endpoints)

Development

Build Commands

# Build the application
go build -o github-activity ./cmd/main.go

# Format code
go fmt ./...

# Vet code for potential issues
go vet ./...

# Update dependencies
go mod tidy

# Run tests (when available)
go test ./...

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes
4. Add tests if applicable
5. Submit a pull request

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

Disclaimer

This tool uses GitHub's public API and is subject to GitHub's terms of service and rate limiting policies. Please use responsibly and avoid making excessive requests.