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mrc-ide / People

523 human committers, 5 bots, and what the commit timestamps reveal about how GDS works.

Every commit carries an author name and email. Collapsing 3,037 per-repository author records by email gives 528 distinct identities - 523 people and 5 machines. Identity is keyed on email because it is the only stable key git offers; one person using both a work and a personal address will appear twice.

People

523
human committers
resolved by GitHub id, address or full name
5
automated identities
0% of all commits
28%
committed exactly once
146 people, one commit each
51
committed over 5+ years
the institutional memory

What stands out

The top 1% of committers wrote 36% of the human commits.

5 people out of 523 account for 33k commits. The top ten alone wrote 48%. This is the usual open-source power law, but it is worth noting in a government context: institutional knowledge is concentrated in very few hands.

28% of people committed exactly once.

146 of 523 committers made a single commit and never returned. 65% touched only one repository. A public organisation attracts drive-by contributors, and the numbers show GDS accepted them.

5.8% of commits land at the weekend.

Weekday work dominates, as you would expect from a civil-service delivery organisation with a strong stated position on sustainable pace. The residual weekend activity is concentrated in incident response and personal-time open-source work.

0% of all commits were made by machines.

158 commits come from 5 automated identities - overwhelmingly Dependabot. GOV.UK's documented policy is to auto-merge dependency upgrades where possible, and the commit history shows that policy working at scale.

69% of live repositories rest on a single person.

In 163 of the 237 live repositories with meaningful history, one individual wrote more than half of all commits. That is the ordinary shape of a large estate with many small tools, but it is worth knowing which ones - they are listed below.

Who writes the code

Top 25 committers by commit count

Humans only. Bots are charted separately below.

Rich FitzJohnRich FitzJohn: 19.8k19.8kEmmaLRussellEmmaLRussell: 3.8k3.8ksangeetasangeeta: 3.4k3.4kPeter WinskillPeter Winskill: 3.2k3.2kjeffeatonjeffeaton: 2.7k2.7kRobert AshtonRobert Ashton: 2.5k2.5kWes HinsleyWes Hinsley: 2.4k2.4kLorenzo CattarinoLorenzo Cattarino: 2.4k2.4kedknockedknock: 1.9k1.9kOJWatsonOJWatson: 1.8k1.8kanmol thaparanmol thapar: 1.8k1.8kLilith WhittlesLilith Whittles: 1.8k1.8kAlexAlex: 1.7k1.7kbobveritybobverity: 1.6k1.6kedknockedknock: 1.6k1.6kGiovanni CharlesGiovanni Charles: 1.4k1.4kAnne CoriAnne Cori: 1.4k1.4kMantraMantra: 1.4k1.4kCharlieWhittakerCharlieWhittaker: 1.4k1.4kpaddy7wbpaddy7wb: 1.4k1.4kGitHub ActionsGitHub Actions: 1.2k1.2kDavid MearsDavid Mears: 1.2k1.2krebeccanashrebeccanash: 1.1k1.1kNicholas BrazeauNicholas Brazeau: 969969Paul LiétarPaul Liétar: 958958

Who they work for

Committers by email domain

A rough proxy for employment. GDS staff use gov.uk addresses; GitHub's privacy setting hides the rest, and a long tail commit from personal accounts.

Other organisationOther organisation: 166166GitHub private emailGitHub private email: 134134Misconfigured (.local etc)Misconfigured (.local etc): 113113Personal email (gmail etc)Personal email (gmail etc): 108108gov.uk addressgov.uk address: 11UnparseableUnparseable: 11

Churn and tenure

Distinct people committing each year

Counting anyone whose active span covers that year. The shape tracks GDS headcount and the delivery peaks of the mid-2010s.

23617711859013: 71314: 171415: 201516: 421617: 471718: 721819: 981920: 2342021: 2362122: 1842223: 1862324: 1802425: 1672526: 13926

How long people stay

Span from first to last commit anywhere in the org.

190142.59547.50same day: 190same day< 1 mth: 67< 1 mth1-3 mth: 281-3 mth3-12 mth: 573-12 mth1-2 yr: 461-2 yr2-4 yr: 662-4 yr4-7 yr: 494-7 yr7 yr +: 207 yr +

When the work happens

Commits by hour of day

Author local time as recorded in the commit. A clean single-peak working day.

11k8.2k5.5k2.7k000: 7480001: 39202: 1910203: 7704: 1400405: 16806: 4250607: 1.1k08: 3.2k0809: 6.4k10: 8.8k1011: 9.1k12: 8.5k1213: 8.2k14: 10.1k1415: 10.7k16: 11k1617: 9k18: 5.1k1819: 2.7k20: 2.2k2021: 2k22: 1.8k2223: 1.3k

Commits by day of week

21.1k15.8k10.5k5.3k0Sun: 3.2kSunMon: 17.9kMonTue: 20.5kTueWed: 21.1kWedThu: 19.8kThuFri: 18.2kFriSat: 2.9kSat

Reading the pattern

Weekend commits account for 5.8% of all activity. The working day peaks between 10:00 and 16:00 with a visible lunch dip, and tails off sharply after 18:00 - the signature of an organisation that does not run on overtime.

Concentration of knowledge

For each live repository with more than fifty human commits, how many people it takes to account for over half of them. One is a genuine key-person risk; four or more is a healthily shared codebase. 237 repositories qualify for the measure.

Bus factor across live repositories

Fewest contributors accounting for more than half the commits.

163122.281.540.801 person: 1631 person2 people: 582 people3 people: 103 people4 people: 64 people5 people: 05 people6 or more: 06 or more

Where a single person wrote most of it

Share of commits by the largest single contributor, for the most concentrated repositories.

Dengue-Epidemiology-and-TransmissiDengue-Epidemiology-and-Transmissi: 100%100%aloealoe: 100%100%climate_norovirus_litreviewclimate_norovirus_litreview: 100%100%commalcommal: 100%100%covfefecovfefe: 100%100%dust-benchdust-bench: 100%100%iccmiccm: 100%100%siRsiR: 100%100%foresite-orderlyforesite-orderly: 100%100%contents-of-carecontents-of-care: 99%99%YEPauxYEPaux: 99%99%hipercow-apihipercow-api: 99%99%

The machines

Top automated committers

Dependabot dominates. GOV.UK runs an in-house govuk-dependabot-merger service that auto-merges qualifying upgrade PRs, which is why bot commit volume is so high.

dependabot[bot]dependabot[bot]: 119119copilot-swe-agent[bot]copilot-swe-agent[bot]: 2121Quarto GHA Workflow RunnerQuarto GHA Workflow Runner: 1414claude[bot]claude[bot]: 33github-actions[bot]github-actions[bot]: 11

Top 60 committers

CommitterEmail typeCommits ReposFirstLast Years
Rich FitzJohnother-org19,8102012015-042026-0711.3
EmmaLRussellgithub-private3,816382019-102026-066.7
sangeetapersonal3,431312018-022026-078.4
Peter Winskillother-org3,183542016-102026-089.8
jeffeatonother-org2,731272016-062026-049.8
Robert Ashtonother-org2,458562019-012026-077.5
Wes Hinsleyother-org2,445652017-052026-069.1
Lorenzo Cattarinomisconfigured2,44132017-062020-093.3
edknockother-org1,907112020-042026-086.4
OJWatsonother-org1,821312017-052025-128.6
anmol thaparpersonal1,785122023-112026-082.8
Lilith Whittlesgithub-private1,757232020-042026-035.9
Alexpersonal1,694422018-042024-066.2
bobverityother-org1,609432017-062026-089.2
edknockpersonal1,579182020-032026-086.4
Giovanni Charlespersonal1,446162019-122026-066.5
Anne Corigithub-private1,416142015-112026-0410.5
Mantrapersonal1,410332023-022026-083.5
CharlieWhittakerpersonal1,398212020-032026-076.3
paddy7wbpersonal1,36572021-112026-074.7
GitHub Actionsother-org1,198402020-092026-065.8
David Mearsgithub-private1,168102024-042026-082.3
rebeccanashother-org1,101102021-082026-085.0
Nicholas Brazeauother-org96972019-012023-124.9
Paul Liétarpersonal958262023-112026-062.6
John Leesother-org956112020-032022-011.8
KeithJF82other-org863122019-072026-087.1
Dariya Nikitinother-org79222021-042024-123.6
Robgithub-private782482019-012026-077.5
pabloperguzother-org761122021-022026-075.4
slwu89github-private68152021-022023-072.4
Raphaelpersonal67962021-022022-051.3
rtesragithub-private67172020-092026-085.9
cm401personal58332023-052026-012.6
GBarnsleyother-org514102021-062025-074.1
nilani-chandradeva1other-org49142023-012026-073.6
kgaythorpeother-org463152018-092026-057.7
Kelly McCainmisconfigured45542023-022026-013.0
osymandiuspersonal438172019-022026-037.1
Lydia Haileother-org43482023-022026-073.4
ruthmccabeother-org42472021-112026-064.5
Marc Baguelinother-org415132019-022026-077.4
shaziaruybalpersonal41062022-112026-033.3
tristan-mylespersonal39222024-042026-062.2
Lekan Anifowoshepersonal37192020-112023-103.0
edknockgithub-private370192020-042026-086.3
RJSheppardother-org37082021-062026-075.0
isa-aother-org37012022-122025-062.6
Daniel Laydonother-org35112020-042023-022.9
Matthew Gretton-Dannother-org34712020-042020-090.4
nickbrazeaupersonal33332020-092022-081.9
Thom Rawsongithub-private32862022-022026-064.3
Hillary Topaziangithub-private32482021-052025-104.4
Jack Wardleother-org31252021-012023-032.2
M-Kusumgargithub-private296222023-022026-083.5
Martin Edenother-org27952018-042018-100.5
Yasin Elmacipersonal25792021-112026-064.6
Russ Hydegithub-private25722022-102025-052.5
kgaythorpepersonal253162018-082026-067.8
Tini Garskeother-org25022022-122025-012.1