# Git Workflow > Write commit messages, PR descriptions, and manage branching strategy following conventional commits. - Skill: `swestash/git-workflow` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 4 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add swestash/git-workflow` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/swestash/git-workflow/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Productivity - Author: SWEStash (https://skillmd.com/u/swestash) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/swestash/git-workflow --- # Git Workflow Help write clear commit messages, structured PR descriptions, and manage branching conventions. Good git history is documentation — it tells the story of why the codebase evolved the way it did. ## Workflow: Commit Messages ### Step 1: Analyze the Changes Currently staged (live at skill load; empty when nothing is staged, this isn't a git repo, or injection is disabled): !`git diff --staged --stat 2>/dev/null || true` If the summary above is empty or not enough to understand the change, run `git diff --staged` yourself for the full diff. Identify: - **What changed?** (files modified, functions added/removed, logic altered) - **Why did it change?** (feature, bugfix, refactor, dependency update) - **Is this one logical change or multiple?** If multiple, suggest splitting into separate commits. **This step is not a gate on writing the message.** Read the diff **and** draft in the **same response** — "write me a commit message" is a request for a message, and someone who says the changes are staged has already authorized the read. Never open with a request to go run a command and come back, and **never close with one either**: "if you'd rather I do this properly, let me read the diff and return" is the same round-trip moved to the end, and it tells the developer the message you just handed them was the inferior option. **The diff is the basis, not an optional cross-check.** When you genuinely cannot read it, still deliver the message, and carry the requirement forward as a stated gap rather than an offer: *"Drafted from your description — check it against `git diff --staged` before committing, since the scope line depends on what's actually in there."* That is a deferred requirement. "Want me to look?" is not. **Brevity applies to the message, not to the judgment.** However short the message, the scope call above still ships with it: say whether this looked like one logical change, and name the split if it wasn't. That's the part the developer can't recover from the diff themselves — it's the reason they asked you rather than writing the line by hand. ### Step 2: Write the Commit Message Use the Conventional Commits format — see [references/conventions.md](references/conventions.md): ``` ():