Follow these conventions when creating commits.
Mindset
You are writing for the next person who reads this commit log, not for yourself. Clarity and consistency matter more than brevity. Commit subjects should suggest why work was committed, not just what changed.
Prerequisites
Before committing, ensure you're working on a feature branch, not the main branch.
# Check current branch
git branch --show-current
If you're on main or master, create a new branch first:
# Create and switch to a new branch
git checkout -b <type>/<short-description>
Branch naming should follow the pattern: <type>/<short-description> where type matches the commit type (e.g., feat/add-user-auth, fix/null-pointer-error, refactor/extract-validation).
Format
<type>(<scope>): <subject>
<body>
<footer>
The header is required. Scope is optional. All lines must stay under 100 characters.
Commit Types
Use the types defined in .ai/config.json under git.types.
| Type | Purpose |
|---|---|
build |
Build system or CI changes |
chore |
Routine maintenance tasks, dependency updates |
ci |
Continuous integration configuration |
docs |
Documentation changes |
feat |
New feature |
fix |
Bug fix |
perf |
Performance improvement |
refactor |
Code refactoring (no behavior change) |
revert |
Revert a previous commit |
style |
Code style and formatting |
test |
Tests added, updated or improved |
Source list: .ai/config.json → git.types.
Subject Line Rules
- Use imperative, present tense: "add feature" not "added feature"
- Always lowercase — commitlint enforces lowercase subjects; sentence-case, start-case, and pascal-case are all rejected
- No period at the end
- Maximum 70 characters
Body Guidelines
- Explain why decisions were made, not how or what
- Use imperative mood and present tense
- Include motivation for the change
- Contrast with previous behavior when relevant
- Use a bullet point for each distinct concept or reason (this also handles line length naturally)
- If a bullet's text exceeds 80 characters, continue on the next line flush with the bullet text (no indentation)
Conventional Commits
The commit contains the following structural elements, to communicate intent to the consumers of your library:
- fix: a commit of the type fix patches a bug in your codebase (this correlates with PATCH in Semantic Versioning).
- feat: a commit of the type feat introduces a new feature to the codebase (this correlates with MINOR in Semantic Versioning).
- BREAKING CHANGE: a commit that has a footer BREAKING CHANGE:, or appends a ! after the type/scope, introduces a breaking API change (correlating with MAJOR in Semantic Versioning). A BREAKING CHANGE can be part of commits of any type.
- types other than fix: and feat: are allowed, for example @commitlint/config-conventional (based on the Angular convention) recommends build:, chore:, ci:, docs:, style:, refactor:, perf:, test:, and others.
- footers other than BREAKING CHANGE: {description} may be provided and follow a convention similar to git trailer format.
Examples
Simple fix (with line wrapping)
fix(api): handle null response in user endpoint
- the user API could return null for deleted accounts, causing a crash
in the dashboard
- add a null check before accessing user properties to prevent the
unhandled exception
Feature with scope (with bullet points)
feat(alerts): add Slack thread replies for alert updates
- post a reply to the original Slack thread when an alert is updated
or resolved instead of creating a new message
- keeps related notifications grouped together for easier scanning
- reduces noise in high-volume alert channels
Refactor
refactor: extract common validation logic to shared module
- Move duplicate validation from three endpoints into a shared
validator class
- No behavior change
Breaking change
feat(api)!: remove deprecated v1 endpoints
- Remove all v1 API endpoints deprecated in version 23.1
- Clients should migrate to v2 endpoints
BREAKING CHANGE: v1 endpoints no longer available
Revert Format
revert: feat(api): add new endpoint
- Reverts commit abc123def456
- Caused performance regression in production
Principles
- Each commit should be a single, stable change
- Commits should be independently reviewable
- The repository should be in a working state after each commit