github-contribution-art

Spell a word in the GitHub contribution graph — as a ready-to-upload LinkedIn banner, as a real-looking contribution chart (with GitHub's month/weekday chrome), or as real backdated commits you push to a profile.

The contribution graph is just a 7-row (Sun–Sat) × ~53-column (weeks) grid of green squares. Line up enough commits on the right days and the squares spell whatever you want. This is a well-known, harmless trick — the commits are real, just empty and decorative.

Or the full contribution-chart look — varied green shades and faint background activity, rendered with the real GitHub chrome (month headers, weekday labels, the "N contributions in YEAR" heading, and the Less→More legend), so it reads like a screenshot of a genuinely busy year rather than obviously-planted art (inspired by Lauren Frailey's "MINTLIFY" contribution graph):

Quick start

Only dependency is matplotlib (for the PNG renders):

pip install -r requirements.txt

# Full contribution-chart PNG — month headers, weekday + "N contributions in
# YEAR" labels, the Less→More legend. Looks like a real profile; no commits.
python3 spell_graph.py --year 2019

# Flat, bright LinkedIn banner at the exact 4:1 ratio — a PNG, no commits
python3 spell_graph.py --banner

# Spell any word (A–Z, 0–9)
python3 spell_graph.py --word ALICE --banner
python3 spell_graph.py --word OPENAI --year 2021

# Dial the total number of commits shown for the year (default is ~1000)
python3 spell_graph.py --year 2019 --commits 250

# Drop the commits into a specific quiet year, or repeat across a range
python3 spell_graph.py --commit --year 2019       # one emptier year
python3 spell_graph.py --commit --year 2016-2019  # spanning four years

Both PNGs land in the current directory (dennis-graph-preview.png, dennis-linkedin-banner.png, or <word>-… for a custom word).

The two routes

1. Just want the image? (recommended)

If the goal is a graphic — not live commits — you don't need GitHub at all. Two no-commit renders:

• python3 spell_graph.py --year 2019 → a full contribution chart. Draws the 53×7 graph with the real GitHub chrome: month headers across the top, Mon/Wed/Fri labels down the side, an "N contributions in YEAR" heading, and the Less→More legend. The --year only sets the month/heading labels here (no commits are made), so pick whichever year you want the image to read as. Upload or share the PNG directly — it looks like a screenshot of a real profile.
• python3 spell_graph.py --banner → a LinkedIn banner at 1584 × 396 px (4:1), rendered at 2× (3168 × 792) for retina. Safe zones: your profile photo overlaps the bottom-left and your name/headline sit over the lower strip on desktop — keep the letters centered and clear of that corner.

Both are dry runs; nothing touches GitHub. Use the commit route below only if you want the art live on an actual profile graph.

2. Want it live on a real GitHub profile?

python3 spell_graph.py --commit --name "Your Name" --email you@verified.com

This writes ./github-art — a local git repo full of backdated empty commits (reversible until you push). Then:

cd github-art
git branch -M main
git remote add origin https://github.com/<USERNAME>/contribution-art.git
git push -u origin main       # use a Personal Access Token as the password

The letters only turn green if --email is a verified email on the target account (this is the #1 gotcha). A fresh throwaway account gives the cleanest result — a blank graph means no stray green in the "off" pixels.

Tip: a past year (the default, --year 2025) shows the whole word immediately. A current year works too, but any columns past today's date fill in as those weeks arrive.

No throwaway account? Point --year at a year where your real graph is quiet, so the art lands on empty squares instead of colliding with existing commits — --year 2019. Pass a range like --year 2016-2019 to repeat the word across a multi-year blank stretch (each year gets its own copy). Years before GitHub existed (2008) are rejected; future years warn, since those squares only fill in as their dates arrive.

Putting the art on your MAIN account (no throwaway)

If you want this on your real profile, the trick is to aim at an empty year so the letters don't collide with commits you already have.

1. Find a quiet year. Open your profile, use the year switcher on the contribution graph (right-hand side), and look for a year that's mostly grey — often an early year before you were active. Say that's 2019.
2. Build the commits for that year:

   python3 spell_graph.py --commit --word DENNIS --year 2019 \
       --name "Your Name" --email you@verified.com

   Use an email that is verified on your main account (Settings → Emails), or the squares stay grey. This only writes a local ./github-art folder — it touches nothing on GitHub yet, so it's safe to inspect or delete.
3. Make a brand-new EMPTY repo on your main account (e.g. contribution-art) — no README, no license, so the first push is clean.
4. Push it:

   cd github-art
   git branch -M main
   git remote add origin https://github.com/<YOUR-USERNAME>/contribution-art.git
   git push -u origin main

5. Reload your profile and switch to 2019 — the word should be spelled out.

Because it's your real account, keep in mind: this adds a public repo full of empty commits, the contributions are permanent unless you delete that repo, and picking a year where you do have activity will blend your real commits into the letters and muddy them. Prefer the emptiest year you can find.

Tune the volume. The default paints ~1000 commits into the year, which is a lot — roughly 3/day. Use --commits to pick a more believable total for that year, e.g. --commits 250. It scales the shading proportionally, so the word still reads; it just gets dimmer as the count drops.

Options

Flag	Default	What it does
--word	DENNIS	Word to spell (A–Z, 0–9; unknown chars become spaces)
--banner	—	Render the flat 4:1 LinkedIn banner instead of the organic graph
--commit	—	Build ./github-art of backdated commits to push
--year	2025	Target year for the graph/commits — a single year (2019) or an inclusive range (2016-2019) that repeats the word across each year
--commits	auto (~1000)	Approx total commits/contributions to show in the year — scales the per-cell shading to hit it (e.g. --commits 250)
--name	Dennis Gavrilenko	Git author name (commit mode)
--email	you@example.com	Git author email — must be verified on the target account
--margin	10	Left inset in weeks (centers the word in the year grid)
--seed	7	RNG seed for the shade/noise layout
--out	auto	Output PNG path

How it works

Each character maps to a 7-row pixel glyph. spell_graph.py places those pixels on the graph grid, then either colors them into a PNG or, in --commit mode, stamps N empty commits onto the matching calendar date via GIT_AUTHOR_DATE / GIT_COMMITTER_DATE. The organic look comes from giving each lit cell a random commit count (so shades vary) and sprinkling a few faint "real" commits around.

Notes

• Empty decorative commits aren't a GitHub ToS violation, but do this on a repo/account you own and don't use it to fake activity you'd misrepresent.
• If you paste a Personal Access Token to push, revoke it afterward — or, better, run the git push yourself so the token never leaves your machine.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.