# Andrea Griffiths **Developer Advocate at GitHub** Scaling developer experiences to 150M+ engineers worldwide **Focus Areas:** Developer communities • Customer success • Open source • Enterprise scale --- ## About Me **Transforming how enterprise teams adopt and scale developer technologies.** As a Senior Developer Advocate at GitHub, I bridge the gap between cutting-edge tools and real-world implementation, helping organizations unlock the full potential of their development workflows. ### Impact Metrics - **100M+** Developers Reached - **10+** Years Experience - **100+** Speaking Engagements My decade-plus journey in developer tools encompasses everything from Git workflows and DevOps practices to AI-assisted development. I specialize in translating complex technical concepts into actionable strategies that drive measurable business outcomes—whether that's reducing deployment times, improving security posture, or accelerating time-to-market. ### What sets me apart My unconventional path from Army service and construction management to software engineering gives me a unique perspective on practical problem-solving. I understand both the technical challenges and the human dynamics that make or break technology adoption in large organizations. Beyond client work, I'm an active voice in the developer community through conference speaking, technical writing, and creating open source developer tools. I've built projects like Team X-Ray, a VS Code extension that helps developers understand team expertise and collaboration patterns. I believe the best advocacy comes from real-world experience, which is why I stay hands-on with the tools and practices I recommend. *Based in Florida with my Welsh partner, two sons, and two dogs. When I'm not advocating for better developer experiences, you'll find me mentoring emerging talent and contributing to the open source projects that power our industry.* --- ## Featured Projects Open source tools I've created to solve real developer problems and enhance team collaboration. ### Agent Context System *Context engineering fundamentals for AI coding agents* **Status:** Open Source Two markdown files that give every AI coding agent — and every subagent — shared project knowledge and session-to-session memory. AGENTS.md is your project's committed source of truth, always in the agent's prompt. .agents.local.md is your personal scratchpad, gitignored, growing as the agent logs what it learns. No plugins, no infrastructure — just files that work across every major coding agent. **Key Features:** - Cross-platform: works with Cursor, Copilot, Codex, Windsurf, Factory, and Claude Code - Session-to-session memory via gitignored scratchpad that agents update automatically - Instruction budget discipline — root file stays under 120 lines for optimal agent compliance - Knowledge promotion pathway from personal scratchpad to shared project context - Subagent-aware design — shared context for parallel agents that don't inherit conversation history **Technologies:** Markdown, Bash, Context Engineering, Shell Scripts, Cross-Platform Agents **Links:** - GitHub: https://github.com/AndreaGriffiths11/agent-context-system - Live Demo: https://agents.mainbranch.dev/ ### Team X-Ray *Stop being a stranger on your own team* **Status:** Open Source A VS Code extension that reveals team expertise through code analysis. Discover the humans behind your codebase, reveal hidden expertise, and understand how your teammates collaborate. **Key Features:** - File expert discovery by right-clicking files - AI-powered team expertise overview - Smart challenge matching to identify team members' strengths - Integration with GitHub's Model Context Protocol (MCP) **Technologies:** TypeScript, VS Code Extension, GitHub Models API, Git Analysis **Links:** - GitHub: https://github.com/AndreaGriffiths11/teamxray - VS Code Marketplace: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=AndreaGriffiths.teamxray ### Git History Cleaner *Safe git history management made simple* **Status:** Open Source A web-based tool that helps developers generate customized bash scripts for clearing Git repository history while preserving current files. Features a user-friendly interface with built-in safety checks, automatic backup creation, and plain English explanations for each Git command. **Key Features:** - Safe script generation with automatic backup commands - Plain English explanations for each Git operation - Multiple output formats: clipboard copy, .sh download, inline viewing - Input validation and repository name sanitization - Customizable branch names and safety options - Educational UX that emphasizes user responsibility **Technologies:** React, TypeScript, Vite, Tailwind CSS, Radix UI **Links:** - GitHub: https://github.com/AndreaGriffiths11/git-history-cleaner - Live Demo: https://andreagriffiths11.github.io/git-history-cleaner/ ### Open Source Best Practices *A comprehensive framework for launching and hardening sustainable open source projects* **Status:** Open Source An 8-phase framework designed for developers preparing projects for public release or improving existing repositories. Covers security (git history cleaning), legal and ownership, community governance, documentation, infrastructure setup, maintainer expectations, vulnerability reporting, and funding sustainability. **Key Features:** - 8-phase launch framework from security audit to funding sustainability - File checklists for LICENSE, CONTRIBUTING, CODE_OF_CONDUCT, and SECURITY.md - Governance structures and maintainer role definitions - GitHub Sponsors setup and funding sustainability guidance - Compatible with GitHub Copilot, Claude, and agentic AI workflows **Technologies:** Markdown, Open Source, GitHub Actions, CI/CD, GitHub Sponsors **Links:** - GitHub: https://github.com/andreagriffiths11/open-source-best-practices - Live Demo: https://skills.sh/andreagriffiths11/open-source-best-practices/open-source-best-practices --- ## Recent Talks ### Teaching Millions to Code: Quincy Larson on 10 Years of freeCodeCamp **GitHub Universe 2025** • October 28, 2025 An inspiring conversation with Quincy Larson, founder of freeCodeCamp, exploring how the world's largest free coding education platform has helped over 400,000 people land developer jobs and what's next for tech education in an AI-powered landscape. [View Presentation](https://www.youtube.com/live/m36P_8s1624) ### The AI Teammate Is Here — Now What? **Commit Your Code Conference 2025** • September 25-26, 2025 Exploring how engineering teams are adapting to AI collaboration, addressing the practical challenges of managing hybrid human-AI workflows and preserving code quality as AI becomes a larger contributor. [View Presentation](https://sessionize.com/s/acolombiadev/the-ai-teammate-is-here-now-what/147857) ### When AI Agents Go Rogue: Securing the New Attack Surface **JFrog SwampUP 2025** • September 8-10, 2025 Exploring emerging security risks as AI agents gain autonomous capabilities and system access, including new attack vectors, malicious threats, and GitHub's approach to building secret scanning directly into AI tool calls. [View Presentation](https://sessionize.com/s/acolombiadev/when-ai-agents-go-rogue-securing-the-new-attack-su/147859) ### Mona's Lucky Draw: Building a GitHub Commenter Raffle with Next.js and GitHub Copilot **Netlify Compose** • October 2, 2024 Watch a basic Next.js app evolve into an engaging GitHub commenter raffle system. [View Presentation](https://www.netlify.com/compose/2024/github-commenter-raffle-with-next-js-and-github-copilot/) ### Open Source Friday Special: AI's Role Shaping Developer Tools **GitHub Universe** • October 27, 2024 A dynamic conversation straight from GitHub Universe! Featuring Justin Cormack (CTO, Docker) and Ron Efroni (CEO & Co-founder, Flox.dev) as they explore how AI is transforming the developer landscape. [View Presentation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GURdeT4zNNU) ### The new OSS community: Enabling for advocates not customers **Berlin Buzzwords 2021** • August 22, 2021 Built and maintained by people like you, open source software powers the global economy. Sustainability of this ecosystem is pivotal to accelerate human progress; yet many organizations focus their community building efforts as a sales pipeline, or a program to deflect requests for support. [View Presentation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BGZF5CXHkc&t=312s) --- ## Featured Writings ### Your contributors are AI-first now. Is your project? **GitHub Blog** • August 12, 2026 AI contributors are already in your queue. AutoGPT maintainer Nicholas Tindle shares the repo instructions, gates, and boundaries that keep maintainers in control. [Read Article](https://github.blog/open-source/maintainers/your-contributors-are-ai-first-now-is-your-project/) ### Copilot vs. raw API access: What are you actually paying for? **GitHub Blog** • July 22, 2026 Copilot now bills usage at listed API rates. Compare direct model access with the coding workflow, policy, and harness work around it. [Read Article](https://github.blog/ai-and-ml/github-copilot/copilot-vs-raw-api-access-what-are-you-actually-paying-for/) ### Agent pull requests are everywhere. Here’s how to review them. **GitHub Blog** • May 7, 2026 A practical guide to reviewing agent-generated pull requests: what to look for, where issues hide, and how to catch technical debt before it ships. [Read Article](https://github.blog/ai-and-ml/generative-ai/agent-pull-requests-are-everywhere-heres-how-to-review-them/) ### Building AI-powered GitHub issue triage with the Copilot SDK **GitHub Blog** • March 24, 2026 Learn how to integrate the Copilot SDK into a React Native app to generate AI-powered issue summaries, with production patterns for graceful degradation and caching. [Read Article](https://github.blog/ai-and-ml/github-copilot/building-ai-powered-github-issue-triage-with-the-copilot-sdk/) ### What’s new with GitHub Copilot coding agent **GitHub Blog** • February 26, 2026 GitHub Copilot coding agent now includes a model picker, self-review, built-in security scanning, custom agents, and CLI handoff. Here’s what’s new and how to use it. [Read Article](https://github.blog/ai-and-ml/github-copilot/whats-new-with-github-copilot-coding-agent/) ### How AI is reshaping developer choice (and Octoverse data proves it) **GitHub Blog** • February 19, 2026 AI is rewiring developer preferences through convenience loops. Octoverse 2025 reveals how AI compatibility is becoming the new standard for technology choice. [Read Article](https://github.blog/ai-and-ml/generative-ai/how-ai-is-reshaping-developer-choice-and-octoverse-data-proves-it/) [View All Writings](https://andreagriffiths.dev/writings) --- ## Connect - **Website:** https://andreagriffiths.dev - **GitHub:** https://github.com/andreagriffiths11 - **LinkedIn:** https://linkedin.com/in/acolombiadev - **Twitter/X:** https://twitter.com/acolombiadev - **Bluesky:** https://bsky.app/profile/acolombiadev.bsky.social - **Instagram:** https://instagram.com/acolombiadev - **Medium:** https://medium.com/@andreagriffiths11 - **Dev.to:** https://dev.to/andreagriffiths11 **Schedule a Meeting:** https://andreagriffiths.dev/#contact --- *Last updated: 2026-08-15*