nestix6 Read the changes
- Run
git statusto see what is staged, unstaged, and untracked. - Run
git diff --cached— the staged changes are what's being committed. If nothing is staged, usegit diff HEADinstead.
Describe only what is actually being committed. Unstaged and untracked files don't belong in the message.
Format
A subject line, a blank line, then the body:
Short imperative summary, under 72 characters
Why this change is needed — the relevant context, a sentence or two.
- Thematic bullet, only if the change needs them
- Another
No markdown headers. The subject line is what shows up in git log --oneline, so it has to stand on its own.
Write the subject in the imperative: "Add retry to upload handler", not "Added retry" or "This adds retry".
Length
Message length does not scale with diff size. A 40-file change gets the same length message as a 4-file one — the bullets just get more general.
- Small changes: subject line only, or subject plus one sentence. No bullets.
- Large changes: at most 5 bullets, grouped by theme, not by file. If you're writing one bullet per file, collapse them into a single bullet naming the theme.
Never enumerate files, functions, or line-level edits. The diff already records those; the message exists to say what they add up to.