Commit Message

Commit Message Generator

Purpose

Generate well-formatted commit messages following the Conventional Commits specification.

When to Use

• User asks "help me write a commit message"
• User says "commit this" or "commit my changes"
• User wants to review staged changes before committing
• User asks for commit message suggestions
• User mentions "conventional commit" or asks about commit format

Instructions

1. Check staged changes:

   git diff --staged
   

2. If no staged changes, check unstaged:

   git diff
   

3. Analyze the changes and identify:

   • Type: feat, fix, docs, refactor, test, chore, perf, ci, style, build
   • Scope: Affected area/module (optional but recommended)
   • Description: What changed and why

4. Generate commit message in format:

   type(scope): brief description
   
   Optional body with more details.
   - Bullet points for multiple changes
   - Explain the "why" not just "what"
   
   Optional footer for breaking changes or issue refs.
   

Commit Types

Examples

Example 1: Feature Addition

Changes: Added new user authentication endpoint

Output:

feat(auth): add user authentication endpoint

- Implement JWT-based authentication
- Add login and logout endpoints
- Include token refresh mechanism

Closes #123

Example 2: Bug Fix

Changes: Fixed date display issue in reports

Output:

fix(reports): correct date formatting in timezone conversion

Use UTC timestamps consistently across report generation.
Previous implementation used local time, causing incorrect
dates for users in different timezones.

Example 3: Refactoring

Changes: Extracted duplicate validation logic

Output:

refactor(validation): extract common validation utilities

- Move email validation to shared utils
- Create reusable phone number validator
- Reduce code duplication across forms

Example 4: Breaking Change

Changes: Changed API response format

Output:

feat(api)!: change response format to JSON:API spec

BREAKING CHANGE: API responses now follow JSON:API specification.
Clients need to update their response parsing logic.

Migration guide: docs/migration-v2.md

Guidelines

• First line: Under 72 characters
• Use imperative mood: "add" not "added", "fix" not "fixed"
• Scope is optional but helps with changelogs
• Body: Explain "why" for non-obvious changes
• Footer: Reference issues, note breaking changes
• Separate concerns: One logical change per commit

Co-Author Attribution

When AI assists with commits, include attribution:

Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>