Background And Related Work

Last updated: 2026-07-15T0200-07:00 Source/command: primary papers, official proceedings/project documentation, official npm metadata, and the detailed reports linked below Completeness: first BOOTSTRAP coverage pass complete; RECAP artifact availability and external user-study recruitment remain unresolved

Detailed reports:

• search and source verification
• coverage and contradiction review
• baseline and experiment handoff

Search Log

Date	Query/source	Purpose	Result
2026-07-15	SeeSoft, Evolution Matrix, CodeCity, EvoStreets, Software Cartography, History Flow, code_swarm, Ownership Map, Evolution Storylines	Verify the seven historical families	Primary metadata and author/official PDFs verified; several user-supplied dates were corrected or made precise.
2026-07-15	coding-agent trajectory analysis, replay, observability, survival, long-horizon	Find same-problem and same-claim work	RECAP is the closest process-replay system; recent trajectory and survival papers create high empirical-overlap risk.
2026-07-15	Git visual analytics, evaluation of software visualization	Find commit-only baselines and accepted protocols	Githru and the Merino et al. review imply real systems, task accuracy/time, case studies, usability, and engagement evidence.
2026-07-15	official ECharts, D3, Cytoscape.js, uPlot, Perfetto, Gource, Hercules docs and npm metadata	Bound custom implementation	Existing libraries cover charts, stable/preset graphs, large time series, trace timelines, animation, and Git burndown/coupling.

PDF Corpus

No PDFs are committed. Eight open-access, high-risk or method-relevant papers are retained locally under ignored docs/reference/ for full-text claim and protocol checks. Durable claims below link public primary pages, and each active BibTeX entry records its verification source and local-PDF availability.

Claim-Oriented Novelty Map

Claim	Closest prior work	Same-claim risk	Novelty delta	Baselines implied	Expansion opportunity
Joining fine-grained coding activity with code evolution recovers context unavailable from chat or Git alone.	RECAP	High	Cross-vendor native histories; repository-level multi-session evolution; explicit recorded-event/candidate-actual-Git/endpoint mismatch.	RECAP position, native event table, Git-only view.	Treat mismatch and durable survival as first-class evidence, not only replay alignment.
Coordinated evolution views improve long-horizon process review.	Githru, RECAP, AgentSeer	Medium-high	Seven coordinated software-evolution projections over event-plus-Git data, shared stable layout and time cursor, decision-specific tasks.	Githru/Git-only, RECAP-style linear replay, event table.	Establish which review questions require a joined representation rather than claiming visual novelty alone.
Event granularity exposes stable coding-agent behavior patterns.	Understanding Code Agent Behaviour, Agent trajectories as programs	High	Multi-session repository growth, durable outcomes, and local system evidence rather than benchmark issue trajectories alone.	Published action taxonomies and trajectory statistics.	Link process patterns to commit/survival outcomes and review decisions.
Agent-associated code has measurable survival and ownership dynamics.	Will It Survive?, Code Lifespan Survival Analysis	High	Visualization and event-to-outcome provenance rather than a new survival-analysis claim.	Published survival protocols and replication packages.	Use survival as one coordinated projection and validity check; do not claim first agent-code survival study.
The system remains interactive across weeks or months.	Perfetto, Githru	Medium	Repository/event semantic aggregation with stable spatial views, not general trace rendering.	Perfetto trace export and raw browser benchmark.	Publish a reusable longitudinal dataset/format if privacy permits.

Closest Work

Work	Claim	Method/artifact	Evaluation	Relation	Gap relative to this project
RECAP (2026)	Chat or Git alone cannot reconstruct AI-assisted programming context.	VS Code extension records Copilot chat plus shadow-Git edits; web timeline replay and analyses.	41 students, two-week project, 2,034 prompts and 8,239 edits.	Same problem and core join mechanism.	Copilot/VS Code-specific; focuses developer-AI interactions and replay, not cross-agent repository evolution, actual Git outcomes, blame, or current survival.
Githru (TVCG 2021)	Git metadata needs scalable visual analytics.	Commit-graph reconstruction/clustering, summaries, file hierarchy, comparisons.	Domain expert cases and controlled study with 12 developers.	Same evaluation tasks and Git setting; commit-only mechanism.	No agent events or process/outcome mismatch.
AgentSeer (AAAI 2026 demo)	Raw spans are insufficient for agent observability.	Temporal action and component graphs plus action-level red teaming.	Six-agent demonstration.	Same action observability, different domain goal.	No coding-repository evolution or longitudinal Git join.
Understanding Code Agent Behaviour (ICSE 2026 manuscript)	Success rates hide meaningful trajectory structure.	Normalized OpenHands/SWE-agent/Prometheus trajectories and manual/statistical analyses.	SWE-bench trajectories; success/failure and localization analyses.	Same event-pattern problem.	Benchmark tasks rather than days-to-months product evolution; no visualization artifact or durable history.
Will It Survive? (EASE 2026 manuscript)	Agent-authored code longevity differs from human code.	File/line survival over 201 repositories and 200k+ units.	Kaplan--Meier, Cox models, modification taxonomy, released package.	Same survival question.	No process events; authorship starts from agent PR labels. This project must not claim novelty for survival analysis itself.
Hercules	Full Git history supports fast burndown, ownership, coupling, and churn analysis.	Go analysis DAG plus plotting tools.	Open-source system and documented large-repository runs.	Same Git-derived metrics and several view families.	No native agent events; inactive release line increases reproduction risk.

Historical Foundations

• SeeSoft maps each source line to a thin colored row and reports interaction over up to 50,000 lines.
• The Evolution Matrix represents versions and classes/files as a matrix and classifies recurring evolution shapes.
• CodeCity, EvoStreets, and Software Cartography establish the city metaphor, incrementally stable layouts, and semantically meaningful stable maps respectively.
• History Flow makes contribution survival visible; code_swarm studies organic animated histories; Software Evolution Storylines uses storyline/metro-map conventions to show developer interaction.
• Ownership Map connects repository changes to developer knowledge and responsibility.

Mandatory Baselines

Baseline	Official artifact/version	Runnable status	Visible information	Tuning surface	Protocol	Risk	Consequence
Git-only	local Git plus official git log, diff, blame	Runnable	Commits, files, lines, authors, current survival	time range, rename threshold, first-parent/all	Same repository/time range; no agent fields	Merge/squash and rename ambiguity	If it answers process tasks equally well, the event-level claim fails.
Native event table	agent-session normalized JSON	Runnable after exporter	prompts, tools, paths, status, tokens, timestamps	filtering/aggregation only	Same events without coordinated views or Git join	Raw logs can leak private text	If it matches the gallery, visualization utility is unsupported.
Perfetto timeline	current official browser UI; legacy Trace Event JSON accepted	Runnable export; external UI	timestamped tracks and event detail	track mapping	Same event set converted without gallery-specific views	Not repo spatial/survival aware	Establishes whether custom timeline work is necessary.
Gource	0.56	Not locally installed; custom-log export is feasible	animated file tree and actors	time scale, filters, colors	Feed equivalent Git and agent-touch logs	Poster-oriented and no analysis tasks	If animation alone answers tasks, richer playback may be unnecessary.
Hercules	v10.7.2	Not installed; Docker/source possible	Git burndown, ownership, couples, churn	sampling/granularity/identity map	Cross-check Git-derived aggregates on one repository	Last release 2020; optional TensorFlow plotting deps	Metric disagreement blocks interpretation until resolved.
RECAP position	arXiv:2605.01104	Paper verified; public code link not found in full text	merged chat/edit replay and analysis	system-specific	Compare supported questions and information model, not fabricated runtime numbers	Artifact availability unresolved	Claims must remain differentiated even without a runnable comparison.

Experimental Precedents And External Assets

RQ	Accepted paper/protocol	Asset	Reusable design	Required deviation/glue
RQ1	RECAP's parallel streams; Githru's Git-history abstraction	Local native sessions; Git plumbing; RECAP paper	Explicitly compare information available from each source and the join	Add observed/committed/surviving mismatch audit and rename handling.
RQ2	ICSE trajectory study and published action taxonomies	SWE-bench experiment trajectories where licensing permits	Predefine action classes; compare success/failure and agents	Extend from single issue attempts to multi-session repository evolution and durable outcomes.
RQ3	Merino et al. evaluation guidance; Githru controlled tasks	Real OSS repositories and recorded task answers	Accuracy/time plus case study, usability, recollection/engagement	Use process-review tasks and include event-table and Git-only baselines.
RQ4	Perfetto large-trace UI and Githru graph abstraction	Synthetic scale-up from real event distributions plus full local history	Report throughput, size, latency, memory and semantic zoom	Add stable spatial layouts and linked selection benchmarks.
Survival projection	Will It Survive replication package; CLSA Zenodo package	Agent-labelled PR histories and line-survival protocol	Rename/refactoring-aware lineage checks and censored survival	Treat as validation/projection, not central novelty or causal agent attribution.

Absorbable Ideas

Source	Idea to absorb	Claim expansion	Experiment implication	Risk
RECAP	Shadow history preserves discarded work.	Model observed-but-not-committed changes explicitly.	Quantify each mismatch category.	Native session logs may lack exact edit snapshots.
Githru	Adjustable history abstraction and task-derived requirements.	Tie semantic zoom to review tasks.	Ablate stable aggregation and measure task effects.	Reimplementing its commit graph would bloat scope.
Software Cartography	Stable coordinates enable comparison and spatial memory.	One layout across time and views.	Compare stable versus recomputed layout.	Semantic layouts can surprise users; hierarchy-first layout is safer initially.
Hercules	Incremental burndown and explicit sampling/granularity.	Reuse verified Git metrics instead of inventing survival math.	Cross-check aggregates and report sampling settings.	Old artifact and heavy optional dependencies.
Trajectory studies	Action sequences and repeated edits distinguish agent behavior.	Connect behavior to durable repository outcomes.	Define patterns before final data inspection.	Post-hoc pattern naming would invalidate inference.

Adjacent Communities

Community	Why relevant	Keywords	Useful sources
VIS/TVCG/visual analytics	Coordinated views, dynamic graphs, evaluation	semantic zoom, insight evaluation, stable mental map	Githru, visual-analytics evaluation surveys
VISSOFT/ICSE/MSR	Software history, program comprehension, empirical protocols	evolution, repository mining, ownership, survival	Seven historical families, trajectory studies, survival papers
Systems observability	Large event streams and trace interaction	timeline, trace query, cross-layer correlation	Perfetto and Trace Event format
HCI/CS education	Naturalistic AI-assisted programming and replay studies	process replay, longitudinal classroom deployment	RECAP and History Flow

Venue Evaluation Patterns

The strongest cross-domain pattern is a mixed evaluation: real-system case studies for open-ended discovery, controlled tasks for time/accuracy, qualitative strategy evidence, and computational scalability. The 2018 systematic review found that many software-visualization papers lacked strong evaluation and explicitly recommends real open-source systems and controlled experiments when variables can be controlled. A poster/demo-only gallery would not support the paper's target claim.

Must-Read List

1. RECAP (highest same-mechanism risk).
2. Githru (closest visual-analytics and evaluation precedent).
3. Merino et al. evaluation review (protocol obligation).
4. Understanding Code Agent Behaviour and Agent Trajectories as Programs (behavior-pattern overlap).
5. Will It Survive? and CLSA (survival overlap and AST-aware line matching).
6. SeeSoft, Evolution Matrix, Software Cartography, History Flow, code_swarm, Ownership Map, and Evolution Storylines (design foundations).

Novelty Verdict

• Overall same-claim risk: high if framed as replay or agent-code survival; medium if the contribution is the explicit cross-vendor event-to-durable- outcome representation plus demonstrated review utility.
• Ambitious target claim: coordinated event-plus-Git evidence enables process-review judgments that commit-only and event-only interfaces cannot reliably support over long horizons.
• Claims requiring stronger evidence: join fidelity, pattern predefinition, human review utility, and interaction scale.
• Larger opportunity: make disagreement between observed actions, committed changes, and surviving code an empirical object rather than hiding it.
• Mandatory baselines: Git-only, event table, Perfetto, Gource where applicable, Hercules metric cross-check, and a position-level RECAP comparison.
• Next action: preserve the current strong thesis, implement the minimum joined representation needed for an RQ1 real preflight, and do not claim authorship or causality from timestamps alone.