GitHub Auto Contribution

A transparent and lightweight GitHub Actions template for recording one auditable daily continuity check-in in a dedicated repository. It runs in the cloud and does not require your computer to stay on.

This is not a fake-code generator, and it does not replace substantive software development. Real projects should keep their real Issues, Pull Requests, tests, and releases; this repository is only for a separate daily continuity record.

What Problem It Solves

• Research, writing, experiments, data preparation, and local work do not always produce a GitHub commit every day.
• Travel, meetings, and time away from a computer can prevent a manual commit.
• Formal project repositories should not be polluted with meaningless activity commits.
• A dedicated log repository separates continuity tracking from real development history.

Who It Is For

• Students, researchers, and PhD candidates;
• Independent developers;
• Stata, R, Python, and data-analysis users;
• Technical writers and content creators;
• People using multiple computers who do not want a local scheduler.

What It Is Not For

• It should not claim that substantive software development happened every day.
• It does not replace real project commits, Issues, Pull Requests, or releases.
• It must not contain passwords, tokens, API keys, private notes, or research data.

How It Works

• GitHub Actions runs in the cloud, so your computer does not need to be on.
• The workflow checks once at 00:05 and once at 12:05 in the Asia/Shanghai timezone.
• The script checks whether today's date is already recorded.
• If no record exists, it appends one row and commits it to main.
• If a record already exists, it skips the commit.
• GitHub Actions may be delayed by queue load, so these are target times rather than exact guarantees.
• At most one real file change and one commit are created per day.

Use This Template

Click Use this template to create an independent repository. Do not use a direct fork for normal use.

After creating your repository, open:

Settings -> Secrets and variables -> Actions -> Variables

Add:

Name	Example
GIT_AUTHOR_NAME	your-github-username
GIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL	12345678+your-github-username@users.noreply.github.com

The email must be a noreply address associated with your own GitHub account:

GitHub -> Settings -> Emails

Then:

1. Open Actions;
2. Run Auto Contribution Check-in once as a test;
3. Confirm that Actions has Read and write permissions;
4. You do not need to run it manually every day; the scheduled workflow runs in the cloud.

Privacy and Security

The repository does not store GitHub tokens, passwords, cookies, API keys, or local paths. The public log contains only a date, timestamp, and fixed note.

Each user must configure their own GitHub noreply email. Do not copy the maintainer's email settings.

File Overview

• activity/contribution-log.csv: daily check-in records;
• scripts/update-contribution-log.sh: idempotent log update script;
• .github/workflows/auto-contribution.yml: scheduled workflow;
• tests/test-update-contribution-log.sh: local smoke test;
• README.md: English documentation;
• LICENSE: MIT License.

License

MIT License.