GitHub Skyline Generator

This program generates GitHub Skyline CAD files in OpenSCAD and STL format for 3D printing.

A GitHub Skyline is a 3D representation of a user's GitHub contributions, where each building in the skyline represents one day or week of contributions.

GitHub introduced this feature 2021 and removed it in 2024. I wanted an updated version of it so I wrote this to allow people to create their own from their GitHub account.

Installation

If you have Golang installed, you can install github-skyline like this:

go install github.com/kamermans/github-skyline@latest

If not, check the Releases page for the lastest binaries for your platform.

Retrieving your GitHub contributions

Authentication

In order to authenticate with GitHub to retrieve your contributions, you must generate a Classic Personal Access Token. The token only needs one scope: read:user.

In order to keep from sending too many requests to GitHub, I recommend that you save your contributions first, and then use that saved file to play around with the other settings.

To save your contributions, use --save -f contributions.json:

$ github-skyline \
    --username someuser \
    --token ghp_dusFo29zivY4jteBv3G7Vu2Fb8fkqr3SrdeY \
    --save \
    -f contributions.json \
    --start 2011 \
    --end 2024

You can also use the environment variables GITHUB_USERNAME and GITHUB_TOKEN to specify the credentials.

The above command pulls the entire contribution history between 2011 and 2024 (inclusive) and saves it to contributions.json.

Generating an OpenSCAD file

To generate an OpenSCAD file from your contribution history, you can use the contributions.json file as input so you don't have to make more requests to GitHub:

$ github-skyline -f contributions.json -o skyline.scad

Total contributions: 11721 between 2011-01-02 and 2024-07-25
Generating OpenSCAD ...
Skyline details:
  Buildings: 709 (36 x 20 matrix)
  Dimensions: 72.0mm x 40.0mm
OpenSCAD file written to skyline.scad

The output OpenSCAD file is parametric, so you can tweak most things like the base dimensions, building width, length and height, for example:

// Base Parameters
baseMargin = 1.000000;
baseAngle = 22.500000;
baseHeight = 5.000000;
baseWidth = 316.000000 + (2 * baseMargin);
baseLength = 40.000000 + (2 * baseMargin);
baseOffset = baseHeight * tan(baseAngle);
baseColor = "cyan";

// Building Parameters
buildingWidth = 4.000000;
buildingLength = 4.000000;
maxBuildingHeight = 60.000000;
buildingColor = "red";

Generating an STL file

In order to generate an STL file, you must have a recent version of OpenSCAD installed and accessible from your PATH (or you can specify the path with --openscad /path/to/openscad).

$ github-skyline -f contributions.json -o skyline.stl

Total contributions: 11721 between 2011-01-02 and 2024-07-25
Generating OpenSCAD ...
Skyline details:
  Buildings: 709 (36 x 20 matrix)
  Dimensions: 72.0mm x 40.0mm
Generating STL ...
STL file written to skyline.stl in 23.530318653s

The STL file is generated in millimeters.

Skyline options

For an up-to-date list of options, use github-skyline --help:

  -a, --aspect-ratio string         Aspect ratio of the skyline (default "16:9")
  -A, --base-angle float            Slope of the base walls in degrees (default 22.5)
  -h, --base-height float           Height of the base (mm) (default 5)
  -g, --base-margin float           Distance from the buildings to the base walls (mm) (default 1)
  -l, --building-length float       Building length (mm) (default 2)
  -w, --building-width float        Building width (mm) (default 2)
  -f, --contributions string        File to save/load contributions (default "contributions.json")
  -e, --end int                     End year
  -i, --interval string             Interval to use for contributions (day, week) (default "week")
  -m, --max-building-height float   Max building height (mm) (default 20)
  -O, --openscad string             Path to the OpenSCAD executable (default "openscad")
  -o, --output string               Output file (.scad and .stl are supported, but stl requires 'openscad') (default "skyline.scad")
  -s, --save                        Save contributions to a file
  -b, --start int                   Start year
  -t, --token string                GitHub token
  -u, --username string             GitHub username