Team Knowledge Map

Shows file ownership, contributor history, and orphaned files from git — so you always know who to ask.

The Problem

You're editing an unfamiliar file at 2am in production. Who wrote this? Who understands it? Is anyone actively maintaining it? Git blame shows line-level authors, but not file-level ownership. Some files haven't been touched in 2 years — nobody knows if they're still relevant or safe to change.

What It Does

Team Knowledge Map analyzes git log for each file and shows:

• Who the "owner" is (contributor with the most commits)
• Top contributors and their commit counts
• Last commit date and how long ago
• Orphaned file detection — files with no commits in N days
• Everything in the status bar + hover tooltip, updated as you switch files

Features

• Status bar — shows file owner and days since last commit for the active file
• Hover tooltip — full contributor list with commit counts on the status bar item
• Orphaned file detection — highlights files untouched for too long
• "Show Orphaned Files" command — scans the workspace and lists all stale files
• Ownership panel — detailed per-file breakdown in a webview
• Explorer tree view — file ownership panel in the SCM sidebar

Getting Started

The extension activates automatically for any workspace with a git repository. Switch to any file and the status bar immediately shows:

👤 @alice · 3d ago

Or if the file is orphaned:

⚠️ Orphaned file

Click the status bar item to open the full ownership panel for the current file.

Commands

Configuration

Aggressive orphan detection (stricter team)

{
  "teamKnowledgeMap.orphanThresholdDays": 90,
  "teamKnowledgeMap.topContributors": 5
}

Reading the Ownership Panel

👥 File Ownership: src/auth/TokenService.ts

Owner: @alice — 23 commits
Last commit: July 9, 2026 (3 days ago)
Total commits: 47

Top contributors:
  @alice  ████████████  23 commits
  @bob    ████████      14 commits
  @carol  ████          10 commits

Orphaned file:

👥 src/legacy/OldPaymentAdapter.ts

⚠️ Orphaned — last commit: January 12, 2025 (181 days ago)
Total commits: 3

Top contributors:
  @dave   2 commits (left the team 6 months ago)
  @eve    1 commit

Show Orphaned Files

Run Team Knowledge Map: Show Orphaned Files to get a full list of files nobody has touched:

👥 Orphaned Files (>180 days)

📄 src/legacy/OldPaymentAdapter.ts  — @dave · 181d ago
📄 src/utils/md5.ts                 — @carol · 210d ago
📄 src/adapters/FaxAdapter.ts       — @bob · 385d ago

Each card shows who last touched it and when. Use this list during team cleanups to decide what to delete, migrate, or assign an owner.

Tips

• Onboarding: Share the orphaned files list with new teammates — these are the risky files nobody understands
• Code review: If you're reviewing a PR for a file owned by someone else, ping them — they have context you don't
• Cleanup sprints: Use "Show Orphaned Files" monthly to find dead code candidates
• The status bar is enough — most of the value is in seeing @alice · 3d ago before you start editing an unfamiliar file