Conventional Commit Messages
Follow these conventions when creating commits.
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
| Type | Purpose |
|---|---|
build | Build system or CI changes |
chore | Routine maintenance tasks |
ci | Continuous integration configuration |
deps | Dependency updates |
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 |
Subject Line Rules
- Use imperative, present tense: "Add feature" not "Added feature"
- Capitalize the first letter
- No period at the end
- Maximum 70 characters
Body Guidelines
- Explain what and why, not how
- Use imperative mood and present tense
- Include motivation for the change
- Contrast with previous behavior when relevant
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
fix(api): Handle null response in user endpoint
The user API could return null for deleted accounts, causing a crash
in the dashboard. Add null check before accessing user properties.
Feature with scope
feat(alerts): Add Slack thread replies for alert updates
When an alert is updated or resolved, post a reply to the original
Slack thread instead of creating a new message. This keeps related
notifications grouped together.
Refactor
refactor: Extract common validation logic to shared module
Move duplicate validation code from three endpoints into a shared
validator class. No behavior change.
Breaking change
feat(api)!: Remove deprecated v1 endpoints
Remove all v1 API endpoints that were 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
This reverts commit abc123def456.
Reason: 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