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GitHub Contribution City: Key Facts for Building a Java and Quarkus Skyline

Quarkus Contribution City maps weekly totals and daily contribution levels into an SVG skyline. Learn how its GitHub workflow publishes the image and what you need to customize the Java project.

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Quarkus Contribution City turns the weeks and days in a GitHub contribution calendar into a customizable SVG skyline. You can publish the generated image to a branch of your GitHub profile repository and embed it in your profile README. Its Java 21 project maps each week to a building and each day’s contribution level to colored windows.

The walkthrough and version details below are from Markus’s October 6, 2026 tutorial; the project repository was not independently verified. That tutorial reports 534 contributions returned for the author’s account on that date—a personal snapshot, not a general GitHub statistic.

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How the contribution calendar becomes a city

The project requests contribution-calendar data through GitHub’s GraphQL API, converts the response into Java records, builds an intermediate scene, then renders the scene as SVG. The workflow can publish that file for use in a profile README.

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  • One week becomes one building. The latest week appears at the right, and each building is two character cells wide.
  • Weekly totals set building height. A logarithmic scale helps quieter weeks remain visible alongside busier ones.
  • Daily levels set window colors. The windows preserve the day-by-day pattern within each week.
  • The busiest week gets an antenna. If weeks tie, the latest tied week is selected.

The tutorial’s illustrative calculation uses a maximum of 20 contributions and a height limit of 14: a week with three contributions gets seven window rows, the busiest gets 14, and a zero-contribution week keeps one row. Those are example outputs from the described calculation, not a measurement of anyone’s GitHub activity.

Choose the calendar window and appearance

The action described in the tutorial exposes settings for the number of weeks, maximum height, and built-in theme. The sample uses 53 weeks, height 14, and github-dark.

  • 53 weeks: gives a full-year-like view of the returned calendar.
  • 12 weeks: creates a shorter recent view. Because the scale recalculates its maximum over the displayed period, a week can look taller in this view than in a longer one. The reported contribution total still refers to the full calendar returned by GitHub.
  • github-dark or mono: choose between a dark GitHub-style palette and monochrome presentation.

The available built-in shape is the city layout. For a different form, such as the DEV landmark in the tutorial, you need to fork the Java source and modify its drawing logic.

Publish the SVG on a GitHub profile

The example workflow assumes a public profile repository named after the account. It checks out that repository and the action, passes the repository owner as the username, and writes the generated image to an output branch. The workflow needs repository write permission to publish there.

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  1. Add the workflow. Copy the publishing workflow into .github/workflows/contribution-city.yml in the profile repository.
  2. Set the account and options. The tutorial’s sample passes the repository owner as the username and configures 53 weeks, height 14, and the github-dark theme.
  3. Provide a token. The example starts with GITHUB_TOKEN for visible contribution data and allows an optional CONTRIBUTION_TOKEN secret when additional access is needed. The calendar GitHub returns depends on token permissions and the account’s contribution visibility settings; do not assume the SVG includes private or otherwise hidden activity.
  4. Run the workflow. After a successful manual run, the tutorial says the workflow creates contribution-city.svg on the output branch.
  5. Embed the image. Add a reference to that SVG through its raw GitHub content path in the profile README.

The sample schedules a daily run at 03:17 UTC. That is the tutorial’s example configuration, not a required schedule. Its deterministic rendering means identical data and options produce identical file contents, allowing the workflow to avoid committing an unchanged image.

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Customize and verify the Java project locally

The tutorial describes project version v1.0.0 with Quarkus 3.33.1 and Java 21. Its local setup calls for JDK 21, JBang, Git, Bash, and the repository’s Maven wrapper. Run the verification command from the project directory:

./mvnw verify

According to the tutorial, integration tests use local data and a local GraphQL server, so they do not require GitHub credentials. The tests generate previews of a full calendar, a recent 12-week view, and an empty calendar.

Adding a custom landmark

The tutorial’s DEV example adds a letter mask as a landmark above the buildings, centers it, inserts a spacer row, and renders it with a monochrome theme. This is a Java-source customization rather than a released action setting; the landmark changes the drawing, not contribution dates, counts, or ordering.

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The stated versions and behavior are attributed to the tutorial because the project repository was not independently verified.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

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