In engineering teams, when someone uses multiple email addresses for commits in Git, the version control system gets confused and treats them as different contributors. As an engineering leader, it's crucial to have a clear view of how your team is working within your repositories. If a dev, uses multiple emails for different tasks, Git will show them as multiple contributors, even though it's the same person. This not only disrupts your data but also affects your ability to accurately assess team performance and make informed decisions. We usually see this at -

1. Startups - In early stages, team members often switch between personal and official emails. In Git repos, this can create multiple entries for the same person, making it hard to get a unified view of contributions across the project.
2. Service-based companies - Devs working in service companies working with multiple clients often use different email aliases or domains for each project. This leads to scattered identities in Git repos, making it challenging for project managers to get a clear overview of contributions for each client’s project.
3. Enterprises - In enterprises, especially during mergers or reorganizations, devs may change email addresses. This leads to split identities in Git repos, which breaks the commit history and makes it harder to see long-term work and results.
   

Why it demands your immediate attention?

1. It could be a compliance and security nightmare

Personal GitHub accounts typically lack security measures that are standard with business accounts. By allowing these for professional use, you're opening the door to potential data breaches. This vulnerability can lead to significant data loss, jeopardizing your projects and stability. And in regulated industries like healthcare and fintech, this may also be a compliance issue.

2.  Accountability issues

When contributions are scattered across multiple personal accounts, it becomes nearly impossible to accurately assess contributions. This confusion can lead to unfair evaluations, misdirected rewards, and diminish team morale, impacting overall productivity.

How we solved this problem.

Engineering leaders need clear and accurate data to manage their teams effectively. When the data isn’t clear— when one person looks like several because of using different emails—it’s tough to make the right calls.

We approached the problem from the ground up and our product analyst, Vishwam, suggested using the cosine similarity algorithm. This mathematical concept, typically used for comparing text, could be applied to compare email addresses for similarity. He shared this idea with Tathagat, our Head of Product, and Rishi, our CTO. They tested the concept and recognizing its potential to improve visibility and accuracy in engineering teams decided to implement it.

Here’s what we did:

First, we noticed

Alex appeared as three different contributors because of their different emails. ([email protected], [email protected], [email protected])

Then, we matched

Our algorithm checks how similar the emails are. If the emails look more than 60% similar, we think they might be from the same person.

Finally, we merged

With just a click on a "Merge" button, our system combines all those emails under one name. This clears up our records super fast.

Why clear contribution insights matter for you as an engineering leader

1. Fair credit, strong morale

Clear visibility ensures everyone gets recognized for their real contributions, boosting morale and strengthening team dynamics. When everyone feels valued, they perform better.

2. Sharper reports, smarter planning

Clean data leads to clearer insights. You can spot trends, plan more effectively, and put resources exactly where they need to be for maximum impact.

At DevDynamics, we built this solution to give you full visibility into your team’s contributions and make better decisions—faster and with the right data behind you.