Code Per Day

A GitHub Action that generates beautiful SVG charts showing your daily code additions and deletions. Embed them in your profile README for a visual breakdown of your coding activity.

Uses the GitHub GraphQL API to fetch commit data across all repositories you've contributed to — including private repos when you provide a PAT with repo scope. Only additions and deletions counts are exposed — no file names, repo names, or code content.

Preview

Bar Charts

Dark	Light

Tokyo Night	Dracula

Nord	Ocean

Sunset	Forest

Midnight	Radical

GitHub Dark	Transparent

Area Charts

Dark	Tokyo Night

Quick Start

1. Create a Personal Access Token

Go to GitHub Settings > Developer settings > Personal access tokens > Fine-grained tokens and create a token with:

• Repository access: All repositories (for private repo support) or just public
• Permissions: Contents (read-only), Metadata (read-only)

For classic tokens, select the repo scope (or public_repo for public-only).

2. Add the secret

In your profile repository (username/username), go to Settings > Secrets and variables > Actions and add a new secret named CPD_TOKEN with your PAT.

3. Add the workflow

Create .github/workflows/code-per-day.yml in your profile repo:

name: Code Per Day

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: "0 4 * * *"
  workflow_dispatch:

permissions:
  contents: write

jobs:
  generate:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - uses: mpge/code-per-day@v1
        with:
          github_token: ${{ secrets.CPD_TOKEN }}
          theme: dark
          period: "30"
          output_path: ./code-per-day
          all_themes: "false"

      - name: Commit
        run: |
          git config user.name github-actions
          git config user.email github-actions@github.com
          git add code-per-day/
          git diff --cached --quiet || (git commit -m "chore: update code-per-day" && git push)

4. Embed in your README

Add this to your profile README.md. The image links back to this repo so visitors can get their own:

<p align="center">
  <a href="https://github.com/mpge/code-per-day" target="_blank">
    <img src="./code-per-day/code-per-day-dark.svg" alt="Code Per Day" />
  </a>
</p>

Or in plain Markdown (without the link wrapper):

![Code Per Day](./code-per-day/code-per-day-dark.svg)

5. Run it

Trigger the workflow manually to generate your first chart:

1. Go to your profile repo on GitHub
2. Click Actions > Code Per Day > Run workflow
3. Wait for it to complete — your SVGs will be committed to the code-per-day/ directory
4. Your README will now display the chart

After the first run, the workflow runs automatically every day at 4 AM UTC.

Inputs

Input	Default	Description
github_token	required	GitHub PAT. Use repo scope for private repos.
username	authenticated user	GitHub username to generate charts for
theme	dark	Theme name (see below)
period	30	Number of days to chart (30, 90, 365)
output_path	./code-per-day	Output directory for SVG files
all_themes	false	Generate an SVG for every built-in theme
chart_type	bars	Chart style: bars or area
animations	true	Enable CSS entrance animations

Themes

Theme	Description
dark	GitHub dark default
light	Clean light theme
dracula	Dracula color scheme
tokyonight	Tokyo Night palette
nord	Nord color palette
ocean	Deep blue ocean tones
sunset	Warm purple/orange gradients
forest	Green forest tones
midnight	Deep navy midnight
radical	Vibrant pink/yellow neon
transparent	Transparent background (works on any surface)
github-dark	GitHub's native dark theme colors

Use all_themes: "true" to generate all themes at once, then pick the one you like.

Privacy

This action only reads commit additions and deletions counts through the GitHub GraphQL API. It does not expose:

• Repository names or URLs
• File paths or names
• Code content or diffs
• Commit messages

The generated SVG contains only aggregated numerical data (total additions/deletions per day) and your username.

Chart Types

Bars (default)

Vertical bars — additions rise above the baseline, deletions fall below.

Area

Smooth filled area chart with the same above/below layout.

Limitations

Counts come from the GitHub API, which applies its own privacy filters. Expect gaps in these cases:

• Private contributions are not always exposed. GitHub's contributionsCollection field — the primary source of "which repos did you commit to" — silently drops contributions it classifies as restricted, even when the token has repo scope. When running against the token owner (no username override), this action backfills by enumerating every repo the token can read directly. When username is set to someone else, only repos GitHub exposes on their public profile are visible.
• "Include private contributions on my profile" must be enabled at https://github.com/settings/profile for private repo activity to surface at all on the authenticated user's own profile.
• SAML SSO orgs require token authorization. For a classic PAT, visit Settings → Personal access tokens → your token → Configure SSO and authorize every org whose private repos you want counted. Without this, contributions to those orgs land in restrictedContributionsCount and never reach this action.
• Fine-grained PATs are only partially supported. They work for public repos and personal private repos, but most orgs have not enabled fine-grained PAT access, and commit history in those org repos will be invisible. Use a classic PAT with repo scope for full coverage.
• Org-enforced member privacy cannot be worked around. If an org admin has restricted contribution visibility at the org level, neither the GraphQL API nor any token scope can expose those commits — the filter runs server-side.
• External collaborator repos only appear when the token has read access or when GitHub attributed your commit to the repo's public contribution graph. Repos you've never been granted access to will be missing.
• Commits without linked GitHub identity. If a commit was authored with an email that isn't verified on your GitHub account, matching falls back to noreply patterns and git author name; commits with no link to your login at all will be skipped.

License

MIT