Find the first commit by a specific author

Measuring remote onboarding effectiveness requires metrics that actually tell you whether new developers are becoming productive members of your team. Time to first commit (TTFC) stands out as one of the most actionable metrics—it measures the elapsed time from a developer’s first day to their first merged pull request. This metric directly reflects how quickly a new hire can navigate your development environment, understand your codebase, and contribute meaningful work.

Why Time to First Commit Works

Unlike survey-based metrics that capture feelings rather than actions, TTFC provides concrete, observable data. A developer who commits code has necessarily completed several onboarding steps: cloned the repository, set up their local environment, understood enough of the codebase to make a change, and navigated your code review process. When you track this metric across hires, you gain insight into whether your onboarding process enables productivity or creates unnecessary friction.

Remote teams benefit particularly from tracking TTFC because the absence of in-person assistance amplifies any gaps in your onboarding documentation or process. A new developer in an office can quickly ask a neighbor for help setting up a local database. Remote developers cannot, which makes your onboarding process either enable or hinder their success.

Setting Up Time to First Commit Tracking

The simplest approach uses Git history to calculate TTFC automatically. You need two data points: the new hire’s start date and the timestamp of their first commit to the main codebase.

Calculating TTFC from Git Logs

You can extract this data using standard Git commands:

# Find the first commit by a specific author
git log --author="developer@company.com" --reverse --format="%H %ai" | head -1

For teams using GitHub, the API provides more detailed information:

# Using GitHub CLI to get first contribution
gh api repos/owner/repo/commits --paginate \
  --jq '.[] | select(.author.login == "username") | {date: .commit.author.date, sha: .sha}' \
  | head -2

Automating TTFC Collection

Create a simple script that runs weekly to track onboarding progress:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""Track time to first commit for new developers."""

from datetime import datetime, timedelta
from github import Github
import os

def get_time_to_first_commit(repo_name, username, start_date):
    """Calculate days from start date to first commit."""
    g = Github(os.getenv("GITHUB_TOKEN"))
    repo = g.get_repo(repo_name)

    commits = repo.get_commits(author=username, since=start_date)

    try:
        first_commit = commits[0]
        commit_date = first_commit.commit.author.date
        ttfc = (commit_date - start_date).days
        return ttfc, commit_date
    except IndexError:
        return None, None

def generate_onboarding_report(team_members, repo_name):
    """Generate TTFC report for onboarding team."""
    report = []
    report.append("| Developer | Start Date | First Commit | Days to First Commit |")
    report.append("|-----------|------------|--------------|---------------------|")

    for member in team_members:
        ttfc, commit_date = get_time_to_first_commit(
            repo_name,
            member['github_username'],
            member['start_date']
        )

        if ttfc is not None:
            report.append(f"| {member['name']} | {member['start_date'].strftime('%Y-%m-%d')} | {commit_date.strftime('%Y-%m-%d')} | {ttfc} |")
        else:
            report.append(f"| {member['name']} | {member['start_date'].strftime('%Y-%m-%d')} | Not yet | In progress |")

    return "\n".join(report)

This script integrates with your existing GitHub setup and produces a simple markdown table showing onboarding progress for each new developer.

Establishing Benchmarks

Raw TTFC numbers mean little without context. You need to establish benchmarks based on your team’s historical data and then use those benchmarks to identify problems.

A reasonable starting framework:

Week 1 (0-7 days): Excellent—developer contributed quickly
Week 2 (8-14 days): Good—within expected range
Weeks 3-4 (15-30 days): Needs attention—investigate barriers
Beyond 30 days: Problem—immediate intervention required

Adjust these ranges based on your technology stack complexity. A team using a monolithic Rails application will naturally have longer TTFC than a team with microservices where new developers can contribute to a single service quickly.

Complementary Metrics

TTFC works best when combined with other measurements that capture different aspects of onboarding success.

Pull Request Metrics

Track not just the first PR, but the initial velocity:

def analyze_first_month_prs(repo_name, username, start_date):
    """Analyze pull request activity in first 30 days."""
    g = Github(os.getenv("GITHUB_TOKEN"))
    repo = g.get_repo(repo_name)

    end_date = start_date + timedelta(days=30)
    pulls = repo.get_pulls(state='all', sort='created', direction='desc')

    first_month_pulls = [
        pr for pr in pulls
        if pr.user.login == username
        and start_date <= pr.created_at <= end_date
    ]

    return {
        'total_prs': len(first_month_pulls),
        'merged_prs': sum(1 for pr in first_month_pulls if pr.merged),
        'avg_time_to_merge': calculate_avg_merge_time(first_month_pulls)
    }

Documentation Engagement

Measure how often new developers access your onboarding documentation:

Wiki page views in the first two weeks
Documentation search queries
Questions asked in onboarding Slack channels

A spike in documentation views or questions might indicate unclear written materials. Consistently high engagement with specific pages often reveals which documentation proves most valuable.

Survey Checkpoints

Deploy brief pulse surveys at key milestones:

Day 3: “Do you have access to all the tools you need?”
Day 14: “Do you understand the team’s code review process?”
Day 30: “Do you feel prepared to work independently?”

These qualitative data points explain the quantitative metrics. A developer with a low TTFC might still feel unprepared if they pushed code by copying patterns without understanding them.

Using TTFC to Improve Your Onboarding Process

Collecting metrics without acting on them wastes everyone’s time. When you identify problematic TTFC patterns, use the data to drive improvements.

Identifying Patterns

Review TTFC data quarterly to find recurring issues:

Do developers from certain backgrounds consistently take longer?
Does onboarding timing (start of month versus end of quarter) affect TTFC?
Are specific repositories where new developers struggle?

Making Targeted Improvements

When data reveals bottlenecks, address them directly:

## Onboarding Improvements Based on Q1 TTFC Analysis

**Issue**: Developers taking >14 days to first commit
**Root Cause**: Local environment setup lacked clear troubleshooting steps
**Action**: Create environment setup script with embedded diagnostics
**Expected Impact**: Reduce average TTFC by 5-7 days

This pattern—measure, identify, improve, remeasure—creates a feedback loop that continuously refines your onboarding process.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Measuring onboarding effectiveness comes with risks if you optimize for the wrong thing.

Do not use TTFC as a performance metric for individual developers. Some of your best engineers may take longer to contribute because they’re being thorough, not because they’re struggling. TTFC measures process health, not individual capability.

Avoid comparing TTFC across organizations without understanding context. A startup with a small codebase will naturally have faster TTFC than an enterprise company with millions of lines of code.

Do not ignore developers who never commit. A TTFC of “never” indicates a serious problem—either your onboarding failed completely or the developer decided your team isn’t worth the struggle. Follow up personally with anyone who hasn’t committed within 30 days.

Implementation Checklist

To get started measuring remote onboarding effectiveness:

Capture start dates — Maintain a record of when each developer began
Set up automated tracking — Use the scripts above or adapt them to your tooling
Establish initial benchmarks — Calculate your current average TTFC
Define improvement targets — Set realistic goals based on historical data
Review monthly — Examine trends and identify intervention opportunities
Close the loop — Document changes and measure their impact

Time to first commit gives you a clear, objective signal about whether your remote onboarding process works. Combined with complementary metrics and a commitment to continuous improvement, TTFC helps you build an onboarding experience that helps developers contribute faster and with more confidence.

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