commit-conventions

Commit Conventions Skill

Enforces commit message format and conventions for the Skill System Foundry repository.

Format

Every commit message starts with a short summary line describing what changed. Use one of these verb prefixes:

Verb	When to Use	Example
Update	Enhancement to an existing feature or file	Update validation to check forward slashes
Add	Wholly new feature, file, or component	Add critique skill to .agents/
Fix	Bug fix or correction	Fix false positive in name validation

Rules

• One logical change per commit. Do not mix unrelated changes in a single commit
• Summary line only. Keep it to one line. No body paragraph unless the change is unusually complex and the "why" is not obvious from the diff
• Component names over file names. Write Update validation logic not Update validation.py. Use file names only when the component name is the file name (e.g., Update configuration.yaml)
• Multi-component changes. Use and to join: Update validation and constants
• No trailing period. The summary is a title, not a sentence
• No co-authors. Do not add Co-Authored-By or any other trailers to commit messages
• No issue closers. Do not add closes #N, fixes #N, or similar references to commit messages — issue references belong in pull requests, not commits

Version Bumps

Version bump commits use a specific format:

Update version to X.Y.Z

Examples

Good:

• Add forward-slash validation to reference checks
• Fix off-by-one in description length validation
• Update shell-scripts skill description for clarity
• Add solution-design skill to .agents/
• Update configuration.yaml and constants for new limit
• Fix false positive in name validation

Bad:

• updated stuff — vague, no verb prefix, lowercase
• Fix bug — no description of what was fixed
• Update validation.py, constants.py, test_validation.py, configuration.yaml — lists files instead of describing the change
• Add new validation check for forward slashes in file references and also update the constants module to expose the new pattern and add tests — too long, multiple concerns
• Fix: validation — colon after verb is not the convention

Edge Cases

• Reformatting or refactoring with no behavior change: Refactor is acceptable as an additional verb: Refactor validation into separate helper functions
• Test-only changes: Add tests for forward-slash validation or Update tests for new edge cases
• Documentation-only changes: Update README for new distribution channels
• Dependency updates: Update coverage to 7.6.1 in requirements-dev.txt