Commit Message Generator

This skill analyzes pending git changes and generates conventional commit messages following industry best practices and common source control terminology.

Process

When this skill is activated, follow these steps:

1. Analyze Repository State

   • Run git status to identify staged and unstaged changes
   • Run git diff --cached to see staged changes in detail
   • Run git diff to see unstaged changes if relevant
   • Run git log --oneline -5 to understand recent commit message patterns

2. Categorize Changes

   • feat: New features or functionality
   • fix: Bug fixes
   • docs: Documentation changes
   • style: Code style changes (formatting, missing semi colons, etc.)
   • refactor: Code refactoring without changing external behavior
   • test: Adding or updating tests
   • chore: Maintenance tasks (dependencies, build config, etc.)
   • perf: Performance improvements
   • ci: CI/CD pipeline changes
   • build: Build system or external dependency changes

3. Generate Message Structure

   <type>[optional scope]: <description>
   
   [optional body]
   
   [optional footer(s)]
   

4. Apply Best Practices

   • Use imperative mood ("add" not "added" or "adds")
   • Keep subject line under 50 characters when possible
   • Capitalize first letter of description
   • No period at end of subject line
   • Use body to explain "what" and "why", not "how"
   • Reference issues/tickets in footer when applicable

Examples

Simple feature addition:

feat: add user authentication system

Implements JWT-based authentication with login/logout functionality
and protected route middleware.

Bug fix:

fix: resolve memory leak in data processor

Fixes issue where event listeners weren't properly cleaned up,
causing memory usage to grow over time.

Closes #123

Documentation update:

docs: update API documentation for v2.0

Add examples for new endpoints and clarify authentication requirements.

Refactoring:

refactor: extract validation logic into separate module

Improves code organization and makes validation logic reusable
across different components.

Guidelines

• Always analyze the actual changes, don't guess based on file names alone
• Consider the impact scope (breaking changes, new features, patches)
• Use conventional commit prefixes consistently
• Keep descriptions concise but informative
• Include relevant context in the body for complex changes
• Reference issue numbers when applicable
• If multiple unrelated changes are staged, suggest splitting into separate commits
• For merge commits, follow the pattern: "Merge branch 'feature-name'"

Output Format

Provide the commit message in a code block, ready to use with git commit -m "..." or as input to a commit dialog. Include both the subject line and body when appropriate.