Disclaimer: Based on Google Gemini-Pro prompts!

Let’s face it—the default git log output is a massive wall of plain text that is painful to scan. When you are working with a team, tracking down who did what and when can feel like reading a raw terminal dump.

Today, we are going to fix that. We will transform your Git log into an interactive, beautifully structured, and color-coded masterpiece tailored specifically for your terminal workspace.

1. The Birds-Eye View: The Micro-Graph (glog)

If you want a quick, clean summary of your project’s recent history with visual branching structures, this command is your best friend. It condenses each commit to a single line and highlights your commits dynamically.

The Command

git log --graph --color=always --pretty=format:'%C(auto)%h -%d %s %Cgreen(%cr) %%%an%%%' | awk -F'%' '$2=="Suyog Garg" {printf "%s\033[1;35m<%s>\033[0m\n", $1, $2} $2!="" && $2!="Suyog Garg" {printf "%s\033[1;34m<%s>\033[0m\n", $1, $2} $2=="" {print}' | less -R

What makes it special:

  • ASCII Graphing: Draws clear lines showing merges, branch splits, and history tracks.
  • Your Commits Stand Out: Instantly colors your commits in Bold Magenta, while your team members remain in a steady Bold Blue.
  • Interactive: Pipes cleanly into your terminal pager so you can scroll smoothly and hit q to quit instantly.

2. The Deep Dive: The Forensic Block View (glf)

Sometimes, you need to read the full multi-line commit message, see the exact timestamp, and know every branch pointing to that commit.

The Command

git log --color=always --date=format:'%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S' --pretty=format:'%C(auto)%h%d%nDate:   %Cgreen%ad%Creset%nMessage: %C(bold yellow)%B%Creset%%%an%%%' | awk -F'%' '$2=="Suyog Garg" {printf "%s\033[1;35mAuthor: <%s>\033[0m\n\n", $1, $2} $2!="" && $2!="Suyog Garg" {printf "%s\033[1;34mAuthor: <%s>\033[0m\n\n", $1, $2} $2=="" {print}' | less -R

The Output Structure:

8dd72a0 (HEAD -> main, origin/main)
Date:   2026-07-06 10:30:10
Message: finisho: ADD, UPDATE abstract  <-- (In Bold Yellow!)
Author: <Suyog Garg>                     <-- (In Bold Magenta!)

How to Save These permanently

Don’t type these massive strings manually! Open your terminal profile configuration file (like ~/.zshrc or ~/.bash_profile) and drop these two aliases at the very bottom:

# Beautiful Compact Git Log
alias glog="git log --graph --color=always --pretty=format:'%C(auto)%h -%d %s %Cgreen(%cr) %%%an%%%' | awk -F'%' '\$2==\"Suyog Garg\" {printf \"%s\033[1;35m<%s>\033[0m\n\", \$1, \$2} \$2!=\"\" && \$2!=\"Suyog Garg\" {printf \"%s\033[1;34m<%s>\033[0m\n\", \$1, \$2} \$2==\"\" {print}' | less -R"

# Beautiful Full Detail Git Log
alias gloglog="git log --color=always --date=format:'%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S' --pretty=format:'%C(auto)%h%d%nDate:   %Cgreen%ad%Creset%nMessage: %C(bold yellow)%B%Creset Author: <%an>%n' | sed 's/Author: <Suyog Garg>/\x1b[1;35mAuthor: <Suyog Garg>\x1b[0m/' | sed '/Author: <Suyog Garg>/! s/Author: <\(.*\)>/\x1b[1;34mAuthor: <\1>\x1b[0m/' | less -R"

alias glf="gloglog"
alias glogf="gloglog"
alias git-full="gloglog"

Run source ~/.zshrc to reload your terminal, and enjoy your beautiful new workflow!

P.S. Yes, I am officially declaring “Prettyfication” a legal tech neologism. Coding is an art, and making our command line interfaces beautiful is essential engineering work. Spread the word!