Why repr?

You’re a developer. You ship code every day. But when someone asks “what have you been working on?”—for an interview, a performance review, or even your weekly 1-on-1—you draw a blank. Sound familiar? You’re not alone. Most developers struggle to articulate their work because they’re too busy doing it to document it.

The Problem

You Forget 80% of Your Work

Research shows developers forget the specifics of their work within weeks. By the time performance reviews roll around, you’re left with vague memories like “I worked on the authentication system” instead of concrete achievements like “Reduced auth failures by 60% through distributed locking.”

Git History is Cryptic

abc1234 fix bug
def5678 update stuff
ghi9012 wip

This is technically accurate. It’s also useless for anyone trying to understand what you actually accomplished.

Brag Documents Require Discipline

Some developers maintain “brag docs”—manual logs of their achievements. But:

You forget to update them
They require discipline you don’t have time for
They’re retroactively painful to fill in
There’s no structure or templates

The repr Solution

repr solves this by treating your git history as your career diary. It’s already there. It’s already complete. It just needs translation.

How It Works

Point repr at your code — Scan your repos once
Install hooks (optional) — Automatically capture commits as you work
Generate stories — LLM reads commits and creates professional narratives
Review and curate — Polish your best work, feature it on your profile
(Optional) Publish — Share publicly or keep private

Everything happens locally by default. Your code never leaves your machine unless you explicitly choose to publish.

vs. Alternatives

vs. Manual Brag Documents

Manual Brag Docs	repr
❌ Requires daily discipline	✅ Automatic (via git hooks)
❌ Easy to forget to update	✅ Retroactive—works on existing history
❌ No structure	✅ Professional templates (resume, interview, changelog)
❌ Time-consuming to maintain	✅ Set-and-forget after initial setup
❌ Hard to quantify impact	✅ LLM extracts metrics from commits

Verdict: repr is like an automatic brag doc that writes itself.

vs. GitHub Commit History

GitHub History	repr
❌ Cryptic commit messages	✅ Professional narratives with context
❌ No grouping or themes	✅ Groups related commits into stories
❌ Not interview-ready	✅ STAR-format stories for behavioral questions
❌ Technical jargon	✅ Multiple templates for different audiences
❌ No privacy control	✅ Local-first, you control what gets shared

Verdict: repr transforms raw commits into stories humans want to read.

vs. LinkedIn “Update Resume” Panic

End-of-Year Scramble	repr
❌ Try to remember 12 months of work	✅ Run `repr generate --since "1 year ago"`
❌ Estimate impact (“probably improved speed?”)	✅ LLM extracts actual metrics from code
❌ Miss your best stories	✅ Feature your top work, export instantly
❌ 3-4 hours of archaeology	✅ 30 minutes of review and polish

Verdict: repr turns resume updates from archaeology into instant exports.

vs. ChatGPT + Copy-Pasting Commits

Manual ChatGPT	repr
❌ Copy-paste 50 commits manually	✅ Automatic batch processing
❌ No templates or structure	✅ Built-in templates (resume, interview, etc.)
❌ No privacy (OpenAI sees your code)	✅ Local LLMs or your own API keys
❌ No storage or versioning	✅ Stories saved locally as Markdown
❌ Repeat process for each repo	✅ Track multiple repos, generate in bulk

Verdict: repr is purpose-built for this exact use case.

ROI: Time Savings

repr saves you hours every quarter. Here’s the math:

Interview Prep

Without repr:

Dig through git history: 1 hour
Read old PRs and commits: 1.5 hours
Write STAR stories manually: 1.5 hours
Total: 4 hours

With repr:

repr generate --template interview --local
repr stories  # Review and pick top 5
repr profile export --format md > interview-prep.md

Generate stories: 5 minutes
Review and polish: 25 minutes
Total: 30 minutes

Savings: 3.5 hours (88% faster)

Performance Review (Quarterly)

Without repr:

Try to remember 3 months of work: 2 hours
Search Jira/Slack for context: 1 hour
Write impact statements: 2 hours
Total: 5 hours

With repr:

repr generate --since "3 months ago" --template resume
repr profile export --format md > Q4-review.md

Generate stories: 3 minutes
Review and edit: 20 minutes
Total: 23 minutes

Savings: 4.6 hours (92% faster)

Weekly 1-on-1s

Without repr:

Try to remember what you did this week: 10 minutes
Vague answers like “worked on auth stuff”: Unprepared ❌

With repr:

repr commits --days 7

Generate summary: 30 seconds
Show up with specifics: Prepared ✅

Savings: 10 minutes per week × 50 weeks = 8.3 hours/year

Sprint Demos

Without repr (team of 5):

Ask everyone what they shipped: 15 minutes
Compile into slides: 15 minutes
Total: 30 minutes (but often more chaos)

With repr:

repr generate --template changelog --since "2 weeks ago"
repr profile export --format md > sprint-14.md

Generate summary: 2 minutes
Copy to slides: 3 minutes
Total: 5 minutes

Savings: 25 minutes × 26 sprints/year = 10.8 hours/year

Annual Total Savings

Assuming you:

Prep for 2 interviews per year: 7 hours saved
Do 4 quarterly reviews: 18.4 hours saved
Have 50 weekly 1-on-1s: 8.3 hours saved
Do 26 sprint demos (if you’re a lead): 10.8 hours saved

Total: 44.5 hours saved per year That’s more than a full work week you get back. Use it to ship more code, learn new skills, or just go home on time.

When repr Really Shines

1. Interview Season

You’ve got a final round at a top company. They’re going to ask behavioral questions like:

“Tell me about a time you solved a complex technical problem”
“Describe a situation where you had to make trade-offs”
“How do you handle tight deadlines?”

Without repr: Panic, try to remember something good, wing it. With repr:

repr generate --template interview --local
repr stories  # 10+ STAR-format stories ready to go

You show up with specific examples, quantified results, and confident delivery.

2. Performance Review Time

Your manager asks for a self-review covering the last 6 months. You have 3 days to write it. Without repr: Frantically search git logs, Jira, Slack. Miss half your best work. Submit something mediocre at 11:59pm. With repr:

repr generate --since "6 months ago" --template resume
repr profile export --format md

You have a professional, quantified summary in 30 minutes. Spend the rest of the time polishing instead of panicking.

3. Switching Jobs

You need to update your resume. You haven’t touched it in 2 years. You have no idea what to write. Without repr: Stare at LinkedIn, try to remember projects, write vague bullets like “worked on backend systems.” With repr:

repr generate --template resume --since "2 years ago"
repr story feature <top-5-ids>
repr profile export --format md > resume-bullets.md

You have 5-10 polished resume bullets with quantified impact ready to copy-paste.

4. Leading a Team

You’re an engineering manager with 6 direct reports. It’s 1-on-1 week. You need to come prepared with specific examples of each person’s work. Without repr: Vague feedback like “you’ve been doing great on the API” or “keep up the good work.” With repr:

repr repos add ~/code/team-project
repr generate --local
# Filter by author in your script or manually review stories

You show up with specific examples of each person’s contributions. Your 1-on-1s are productive instead of generic.

Privacy-Sensitive Industries

If you work in defense, healthcare, finance, or any compliance-heavy industry, repr is designed for you:

Air-Gapped Environments

# Install offline (transfer binary via USB)
# Run local LLM (Ollama)
repr privacy lock-local --permanent
repr generate --local

✅ Zero network calls
✅ Code never leaves your machine
✅ Passes security audits

BYOK (Bring Your Own Key)

repr llm add openai
repr generate

✅ Your API key, your costs
✅ Calls go directly to OpenAI, not repr.dev
✅ Keys stored in OS keychain, not config files

Privacy Audit

repr privacy audit --days 90

See exactly what data (if any) left your machine. Perfect for compliance reviews.

Who Uses repr?

Individual Contributors — Interview prep, performance reviews, career documentation
Engineering Managers — Team summaries, 1-on-1 prep, performance reviews
Tech Leads — Sprint demos, release notes, stakeholder updates
Defense/Healthcare/Finance — Air-gapped story generation for sensitive work
Job Seekers — Resume building, interview prep, portfolio creation

The Bottom Line

You already did the work. You already committed the code. repr just helps you remember and articulate what you built.

Time saved: 40+ hours per year
ROI: Positive after the first use
Privacy: Local-first, you control everything
Cost: Free (if using local LLM)

Ready to unlock your git history?

brew install repr
repr init ~/code
repr generate --local

Get Started → | See All Features →

Getting Started

Guides

Core Concepts

Configuration

The Problem

You Forget 80% of Your Work

Git History is Cryptic

Brag Documents Require Discipline

The repr Solution

How It Works

vs. Alternatives

vs. Manual Brag Documents

vs. GitHub Commit History

vs. LinkedIn “Update Resume” Panic

vs. ChatGPT + Copy-Pasting Commits

ROI: Time Savings

Interview Prep

Performance Review (Quarterly)

Weekly 1-on-1s

Sprint Demos

Annual Total Savings

When repr Really Shines

1. Interview Season

2. Performance Review Time

3. Switching Jobs

4. Leading a Team

Privacy-Sensitive Industries

Air-Gapped Environments

BYOK (Bring Your Own Key)

Privacy Audit

Who Uses repr?

The Bottom Line

​The Problem

​You Forget 80% of Your Work

​Git History is Cryptic

​Brag Documents Require Discipline

​The repr Solution

​How It Works

​vs. Alternatives

​vs. Manual Brag Documents

​vs. GitHub Commit History

​vs. LinkedIn “Update Resume” Panic

​vs. ChatGPT + Copy-Pasting Commits

​ROI: Time Savings

​Interview Prep

​Performance Review (Quarterly)

​Weekly 1-on-1s

​Sprint Demos

​Annual Total Savings

​When repr Really Shines

​1. Interview Season

​2. Performance Review Time

​3. Switching Jobs

​4. Leading a Team

​Privacy-Sensitive Industries

​Air-Gapped Environments

​BYOK (Bring Your Own Key)

​Privacy Audit

​Who Uses repr?

​The Bottom Line

The Problem

You Forget 80% of Your Work

Git History is Cryptic

Brag Documents Require Discipline

The repr Solution

How It Works

vs. Alternatives

vs. Manual Brag Documents

vs. GitHub Commit History

vs. LinkedIn “Update Resume” Panic

vs. ChatGPT + Copy-Pasting Commits

ROI: Time Savings

Interview Prep

Performance Review (Quarterly)

Weekly 1-on-1s

Sprint Demos

Annual Total Savings

When repr Really Shines

1. Interview Season

2. Performance Review Time

3. Switching Jobs

4. Leading a Team

Privacy-Sensitive Industries

Air-Gapped Environments

BYOK (Bring Your Own Key)

Privacy Audit

Who Uses repr?

The Bottom Line