Bind Commit

Committing to BIND 9 — the full checklist

Pre-commit formatting (C files)

1. git add <files>
2. git-clang-format HEAD — the hyphenated binary. git clang-format (with a space) invokes a nonexistent git subcommand and fails. It operates on STAGED files only.
3. git add any reformatted files, then commit.

Only format C lines you wrote or edited yourself. If the working-tree diff was authored by the user (their editor, their patch), do NOT run clang-format over it — it is not your code to reformat.

Message shape

• ≤3 paragraphs; a single short paragraph is usually enough. Focus on WHY — the reviewer can read the diff. Never narrate the diff or enumerate per-function before/after behavior ("Gosh the commit message is so long and chatty").
• Plain subject, no new:/fix:/dev:/doc: prefix — those appear only on GitLab-generated MR-merge commits. Real branch-commit style: git log --no-merges --first-parent.
• Hard-wrap the body at ~72 columns. git commit -m does NOT wrap: a long paragraph becomes one unwrapped line that sticks out immediately. Write the message pre-wrapped to a file and use git commit -F <file>, or pass each physical line as its own -m.

Trailers

• Always follow the rules for AI agents in CONTRIBUTING.md: the Assisted-by: <tool>:<model-id> format, which specialized analysis tools to list after the model id (never trivial tooling), no Signed-off-by: from the agent, no Co-Authored-By: or any AI co-author line.
• Add Assisted-by ONLY when the LLM wrote the load-bearing code/test/config content of the commit. NOT for: rewording a message, squashing fixups, review-only advice, or a comment/doc block added around a user-authored fix — a comment is prose, not the fix; do not rationalize "the comment was AI" to keep the trailer.
• Never add tool-generated bookkeeping trailers — Claude-Session: and anything else the harness would like to stamp on the message (session/conversation ids, transcript links, "generated with" footers). A commit message is for the reviewer and the log, not for agent telemetry; dangerfile.py rejects Claude-Session: outright. If such a trailer shows up in a message you are about to commit, strip it before committing.
• NEVER Closes #N / Fixes #N / Refs #N — issue refs go in the MR description; the branch name already encodes the issue number.

Amending

• HEAD, polish-only (typo, message tightening, whitespace): plain --amend; keep the original author (git's default).

• HEAD, implementation replaced by a different approach: --amend --reset-author (or explicit --author=) — attribution follows whoever wrote the NEW code, not whoever wrote the discarded version. When in doubt about amending someone else's commit, ask first. The Assisted-by question is independent — re-derive it from who authored the new content.

• NOT HEAD: NEVER rebuild the branch with git reset --hard <older> + cherry-pick (this once collided with the user's concurrent rebase and trashed the branch). Instead add a fixup commit on top:

  • content (and message): git commit --fixup=amend:<hash>
  • message only: git commit --fixup=reword:<hash> — it opens an editor and ignores -m; supply the wrapped message via GIT_EDITOR='cp /path/to/msg.txt'
  • content only, keep message: git commit --fixup=<hash>

  Then STOP and hand git rebase -i --autosquash <base> to the user — never run the rebase yourself.

• Before ANY history operation run git status; if a rebase or cherry-pick is in progress, do not touch the branch.

The boundary

Commit locally only. Never git push (any variant), never gh pr create / glab mr create. When the work is finished, hand the MR title/description over as text (see the bind-mr-description skill) — do not offer to push or open the MR.