Git Workflow

Overview

This skill encodes git commit conventions (Conventional Commits), branch naming rules, and workflow best practices. Activate it when you need to commit changes, name a branch, clean up history, or review git practices in a project.

Instructions

Commit Message Format

Follow the Conventional Commits specification:

<type>(<scope>): <short summary>

[optional body]

[optional footer]

Types:

• feat — new feature
• fix — bug fix
• refactor — code change that neither fixes a bug nor adds a feature
• perf — performance improvement
• test — adding or updating tests
• docs — documentation only
• chore — build process, tooling, dependencies
• ci — CI/CD changes

Rules:

• Summary line: max 72 characters, imperative mood ("add" not "added")
• No period at end of summary
• Body: wrap at 72 characters, explain why not what
• Reference issues in footer: Fixes #123, Closes #456

Branch Naming

<type>/<short-description>

• feat/user-profile-page
• fix/login-redirect-loop
• refactor/extract-auth-middleware
• chore/upgrade-tokio-1.40

Use kebab-case. Keep it short but descriptive. Match the commit type.

Workflow Rules

1. Never commit directly to main — always use a branch
2. Keep commits atomic — one logical change per commit
3. Rebase before merging — keep history linear: git rebase main
4. Squash WIP commits before opening a PR
5. Tag releases with semantic versioning: v1.2.3

Examples

Good commit message

feat(auth): add JWT refresh token rotation

Prevents token reuse after logout by invalidating the previous
refresh token on each use.

Closes #89

Bad commit message → fix it

# Bad
fixed stuff
update
WIP

# Good
fix(api): handle empty response body in error parser

The parser panicked when the server returned a 500 with no body.
Added a fallback to use the status text instead.

Common commands

# Start a feature
git checkout -b feat/my-feature

# Stage only relevant changes
git add -p

# Amend last commit (before push)
git commit --amend --no-edit

# Interactive rebase to clean up
git rebase -i HEAD~3

# Check what will be committed
git diff --staged

# Tag a release
git tag -a v1.2.3 -m "Release v1.2.3"
git push origin v1.2.3

References

• Conventional Commits specification
• Semantic Versioning