PulseView — In-Editor Team & Client Analytics for VS Code

PulseView brings manager- and client-facing engineering delivery analytics directly into the VS Code sidebar. It eliminates the need for expensive external SaaS dashboards (like LinearB, Swarmia, or Jellyfish) by aggregating and visualizing metrics natively and securely inside your editor.

🎯 Business Objectives

1. Zero-Cost, Zero-SaaS Visibility: Small-to-medium teams and agencies often need delivery metrics but cannot justify paying $15–25/user/month for heavy external platforms. PulseView offers core delivery metrics at no cost.
2. Context-Aware Analytics: Individual tools like WakaTime show what you are doing as an individual. PulseView shows what the team is delivering right within the active workspace.
3. Client-Safe Consulting: Software agencies and contractors frequently need to demonstrate delivery value during client screen-shares without exposing internal developer performance scores or violating privacy.
4. Data Privacy & Security: No data is uploaded to third-party servers. All metrics are computed locally and stored in a private SQLite database inside the user's workspace.

✨ Features

1. 📊 Dynamic Visuals at the Top

• Daily Activity Bar Chart: A canvas-drawn visual that charts commit frequency per day over the selected window. Features dynamic color scaling based on activity levels and an interactive, real-time mouse hover tooltip.
• Who Contributed Donut Chart: A circular donut chart showing the commit share percentage of the top 5 contributors (and an aggregated segment for "Others"). Hovering slices dynamically displays the developer's share in the center.

2. 📈 Period-over-Period Performance Summary

Shows a glanceable scorecard of delivery metrics for the active window compared to the previous period of the same duration, complete with ▲/▼ Delta Trend Badges:

• Pull Requests Merged: Total shipment count.
• Avg Delivery Time: Average hours from the first commit to completion.
• Lines Changed: Accurate line-by-line code churn totals.
• Active People: Count of unique contributors making commits.

3. 🛡️ One-Click Client-Safe Mode (Privacy Toggle)

Clicking the Lock icon (🔓/🔒) in the header instantly runs a filter that masks individual developer names in both lists and charts (e.g. replacing them with "Developer 1" or "Team Member"). This allows you to review dashboard views with external stakeholders without exposing individual developer profiles.

4. ⏱️ Time to Deliver Breakdown (DORA-Lite)

For recent merged features, it renders horizontal stacked milestone bars dividing cycle time into:

• Writing Code: Time spent on the branch before a PR is opened.
• Waiting for Review: Time from PR creation to the first review.
• In Review: Time spent discussing and revising code.

5. 🔥 Most Edited Files (Churn Hotspots)

Displays a ranked list of files with the highest number of modifications (additions and deletions) in the selected time window, showing you where the codebase is changing the fastest.

6. 👤 Who Works on What (Ownership Map)

Shows the top 1-2 primary contributors per file by commit volume, helping you identify domain experts and mitigate knowledge silos.

🏗️ Technical Architecture & Implementation

PulseView operates fully locally through three core architecture blocks:

┌───────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                  VS Code Window                 │
│  ┌────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │
│  │      PulseView Sidebar (Webview Panel)       │ │
│  │  [Daily Charts] [Scorecard] [Delivery Time] │ │
│  └───────────────────┬────────────────────────┘ │
│  ┌───────────────────▼────────────────────────┐ │
│  │            Extension Host (Node.js)          │ │
│  │  ┌────────────┐ ┌───────────┐ ┌───────────┐  │ │
│  │  │ Git Metrics │ │ PR/Issue  │ │ Cache     │  │ │
│  │  │ Collector   │ │ API Client│ │ Validator │  │ │
│  │  └─────┬──────┘ └─────┬─────┘ └─────┬─────┘  │ │
│  │        │              │             │        │ │
│  │  ┌─────▼──────────────▼─────────────▼─────┐  │ │
│  │  │    Local Cache (Wasm SQLite/JSON)      │  │ │
│  │  └────────────────────────────────────────┘  │ │
│  └──────────────────────────────────────────────┘
└───────────────────────────────────────────────┘
        │                    │
        ▼                    ▼
   Local Git Repo      GitHub/GitLab REST API

• Git Metrics Collector: Invokes local git commands via simple-git (e.g. git log --numstat and git log --merges) to compute diff totals, ownership ratios, and commit-based milestones.
• Optional API Client: If a read-only GitHub or GitLab Private Token is configured in VS Code Settings, PulseView pulls API-level timestamps for PR creations and code reviews to provide precise delivery times.
• Caching with Invalidation: Stores JSON aggregations in a local SQLite file using a Wasm build of sql.js. To prevent display errors when updating structural schemas, the cache validator automatically ignores older cache files that lack required chart parameters.
• Vanilla Canvas Graphics: Rendered directly in a CSP-compliant webview using the HTML Canvas API. Drawing operations are wrapped in requestAnimationFrame with coordinate checks to guarantee crisp visuals regardless of layout resizing or side-panel toggles.

🚀 Getting Started

1. Open a Git-Tracked Workspace: Open any repository in VS Code.
2. Open the Sidebar: Click the PulseView icon in the Activity Bar.
3. Configure API Token (Optional): Open VS Code Settings (Ctrl+, or Cmd+,) and search for PulseView to configure pulseview.githubToken for true PR-level statistics.
4. Choose Time Window: Select your active window (7 Days, 14 Days, 30 Days, 90 Days, 180 Days, or All Time) using the dropdown at the top.
5. Share Safely: Click the 🔓/🔒 icon in the header to toggle client-safe name masking when screen-sharing.

⚙️ Configuration Options