Multi-Project

Checking Every Repo by Hand Every Morning? There's a Faster Way

cd, git status, open the notes, check the agent's work — ten times. Why the morning status round eats your best hour, and how to replace it with one screen.

By Tu Nguyen · · 2 min read.md

A developer stands at his desk pulling on a jacket, frowning at monitors full of folders and terminals.

Morning routine, version one: open the terminal. cd ~/code/game. git status. Open the notes. What did the agent do last night? cd ../app. git status. Open that chat. cd ../book…

Forty minutes later you know where everything stands. You haven’t moved anything yet, and your freshest hour is gone.

Part 4 of Busy, Not Shipping — the status round that feels like work and isn’t.

The same four questions, every time

Look closely at the round and it’s always the same four questions for each repo:

  1. Where is it? Which phase?
  2. What’s next? The next step.
  3. Is it stuck? Waiting on something?
  4. Is it dirty? Uncommitted changes?

None of those need you to visit the repo. They need the answers to be written down and gathered in one place.

Write the answers where they live

Questions 1–3 come from a small status file the agent keeps in each repo — phase, next step, stuck reason. Question 4 comes from git itself. Both can be read without opening a terminal in each folder.

Once they’re read, show them together:

GAME  Dino Buddies   Phase 8/14   next: test rewarded ad    ● stuck   git: clean
BOOK  Dog Training   Phase 5/9    next: draft section 2               git: 14 files
APP   Tip Split      Phase 5/6    next: 3 screenshot captions         git: clean

That’s the whole round, on one screen, in the time it takes to read three lines. It’s the view described in running 10 projects in parallel.

Spend the hour on decisions

With the round gone, the morning becomes the part that actually needs you:

Then start working. The whole thing takes minutes, and all of it is decisions.

A script is fine to start

You don’t need a tool to begin. A shell loop that prints git status --short and the first lines of each state file is a big step up from visiting each repo. The important change is mental: stop visiting, start reading.

Where ShotMatic fits

ShotMatic is that screen: up to five boards, one line per task with phase and next step, stuck work at the top, and a GIT strip on every board showing which repos are dirty — all read from the files already in your repos.

FAQ

How do I see the status of many git repositories at once?

Either script a loop over git status for each repo, or use a dashboard that reads each repo's status and shows them together. The key is one view, not ten visits.

What should a morning check of my projects include?

For each project: its phase, its next step, whether it's stuck, and whether the repo has uncommitted changes. Anything more belongs in the project itself.

How long should a daily project review take?

Around five minutes for a handful of projects, if the status is already written down. If it takes longer, you're rediscovering status instead of reading it.

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