Conventional Commits

Conventional Commits

Turn uncommitted changes into a series of atomic, conventional commits ordered for review, using Hedgehog's commit vocabulary (hedgehog-loop).

When this runs

Normally the Loop commits one step at a time as it goes — schema, then contract, then repository, and so on — so there's nothing to clean up. This skill is for when that didn't happen cleanly:

• A Correction Protocol fix touched an upstream step and several fast-forwarded dependents in one working-tree pass, needing to land as separate commits (one per step, per the Correction Protocol's own rule).
• Work happened outside the Loop's discipline (exploratory changes, a session that didn't commit as it went) and needs reconstructing into the step-shaped history Hedgehog expects.

What "atomic" means here

One commit = one build step, where that applies (one schema, one contract, one repository, etc.) — not one file. A single step may span several files (a Drizzle schema + its migration, a service + its test). If work doesn't map onto a build step (tooling, config, docs), fall back to normal atomic-commit judgment: one logical change per commit.

If a hunk can be removed without breaking the others in its commit, it belongs in its own commit.

Steps

1. Survey the working tree

Run in parallel:

• git status (no -uall)
• git diff (unstaged)
• git diff --staged (anything pre-staged)
• git log -10 --oneline to confirm the project's existing commit style
• Run hedgehog status for which steps/modules are in flight

Read every changed file's diff fully. You cannot group changes you haven't read.

2. Group hunks into logical commits

For each hunk, ask: which build step is this part of, for which module? Group by step first, module second. A hunk in the orders schema and a hunk in the orders repository are different commits even though both are "orders" — different steps.

Common groupings:

• A schema change + its Drizzle migration
• A service + its unit test (tests land with the step they test, not a trailing "add tests" commit)
• A Correction Protocol fix to an upstream step, split from each fast-forwarded dependent step
• Config/tooling changes (lefthook, eslint boundaries, env schema) isolated from any domain step

Do NOT group:

• Two different build steps, even for the same module
• A Correction Protocol fix mixed with unrelated new work
• Two unrelated modules' changes

3. Order the commits for review

1. Build-sequence order. Schema before contract, contract before repository, repository before service, service before controller — same dependency order the Loop builds in, even reconstructing after the fact.
2. Upstream fix before its fast-forwarded dependents, for a Correction Protocol cleanup — the fix commit needs to make sense before the commits that changed because of it.
3. Mechanical before novel. Config, generated files, renames first.
4. Tests alongside the step they test, same commit.

4. Propose the plan, then execute

Output the plan as a numbered list using Hedgehog's commit format before committing anything:

feat(orders): schema
feat(orders): contract
fix(orders): correct FK-by-ID reference dropped in schema step
feat(orders): repository

Then execute each commit:

• Stage exactly the hunks for that commit. Use git add <path> for a whole file; for partial-file staging, write a patch and git apply --cached it.
• Verify with git diff --staged that only the intended hunks are staged.
• Commit with the conventional message.
• Verify clean state with git status before the next commit.

If a pre-commit hook (lefthook: typecheck/lint/test) fails: fix the issue, re-stage, create a NEW commit. Never --amend after a hook failure — a commit that fails the gate did not happen, so amending would rewrite the wrong thing.

5. Commit format

<type>(<scope>): <subject>

• type: feat for build steps; also fix, chore, docs, refactor, style, test, build, ci, perf as needed.
• scope: the domain module name (orders, users, ...) for a build step, or an infra area (db, contracts, auth, hooks, api, worker, web, mobile, config) for bootstrap/tooling commits.
• subject for a build step: the step name itself — schema, contract, repository, service, api, queue, hooks, screen-web, screen-mobile — matching hedgehog-loop's step tables exactly. For non-step commits, imperative and lowercase, under ~70 chars.
• Body only when the why is non-obvious — for a Correction Protocol commit, the body is the explanation ("the commit messages are the explanation").

6. Hard rules

• Never push. Commits only.
• Never git add -A or git add . — specific paths or hunks only.
• Never amend. Always new commits.
• Never --no-verify — a failing gate means the step isn't done, not that the gate is wrong.
• Never commit files that look like secrets (.env, credentials.*, *.pem). Flag and skip.
• Never include Co-Authored-By: Claude or any AI attribution trailer.
• Working tree clean: say so and stop.
• Changes are genuinely one step: one commit is correct, don't split for its own sake.

7. When you're unsure how to split

If two hunks could plausibly belong to the same step or different steps, ask the user once with the proposed plan and an alternative — the full plan, not per-hunk.