| name | commit |
| description | Generate a professional git commit message from the repo's current diff. Analyzes all staged, unstaged, and untracked changes, categorizes them, and creates the commit directly (paste-safe commands are a fallback). Trigger on: "commit", "write a commit", "commit message", "what changed", "summarize changes", "draft commit", "changelog", or any request to commit, stage, or describe the current diff.
|
/commit -- Git Commit Message Generator
Analyze the current repo's full diff, produce a professional commit message, and create the commit directly.
Core rules
- Stage and commit directly. Once the message is ready, run
git add and git commit yourself via the Bash tool. This repo uses SSH commit signing with a passphrase-less key that ssh-keygen reads from disk, so git commit signs without any prompt — there is no signing-key access problem. If a commit ever fails (a passphrase prompt, a pre-commit hook, etc.), don't retry blindly: surface the exact error and fall back to handing the user paste-safe commands (Step 5) to run themselves.
- No Co-Authored-By trailer.
- Detect the shell for hand-offs. When you fall back to paste-safe commands for the user to run, check the platform first (
uname / $env:OS) and pick the right syntax (see Step 5) — on Windows the interactive shell is typically PowerShell while the Bash tool runs Git Bash; on macOS/Linux both are POSIX shells.
- Output goes in the chat, not to a file.
- Paste-safe commands. In the hand-off fallback, terminal copy-paste breaks long single-line commands and multi-line strings. Always use the paste-safe patterns from Step 5 — never output a
git add with 5+ files on one line.
- Sensitive-content check is blocking. Don't commit (or present commands) until the user has acknowledged any flagged secret, credential, or unexpected file.
Step 1 -- Gather the diff
Run these read-only commands together to avoid round-trips:
git status && git diff && git diff --cached && git diff --stat && git log --oneline -5
This gives you: staged/unstaged/untracked files, the full diffs, a file-level summary, and recent commits for style matching.
Untracked files: read their content to understand what they add, but skip files that are binary or larger than 100 KB -- just note their path and size.
No changes? If both diffs are empty and there are no untracked files, tell the user "No changes to commit." Do not fabricate a message.
Merge conflicts? If <<<<<<< appears in the diff, stop and tell the user to resolve conflicts before committing. Do not produce a commit message.
Staged vs unstaged split? If some changes are staged and others are not, write the commit message for staged changes only. Note the unstaged changes separately so the user knows what's left out -- they may want to stage more or make a second commit.
Step 2 -- Analyze and categorize
Read the diff and identify what changed, why, and the scope.
Sensitive-content check (blocking). Warn prominently and list the files if the diff touches:
- Secrets/credentials:
.env files, API keys, tokens, passwords, BEGIN ... PRIVATE KEY blocks, or anything matching *_SECRET / *_KEY / bearer tokens.
- Hardcoded local paths: an absolute path baked into a script (e.g.
/Users/<name>/..., C:\Users\<name>\...) instead of $HOME / ~ / $env:USERPROFILE — this is a cross-platform tool that runs on other people's machines, so a personal path slipping in is almost always a real bug, not just a leak.
- Debug/log artifacts: a
statusline-debug.log path or other runtime output that shouldn't be tracked.
Repo rule compliance. Cross-check the diff against this project's CLAUDE.md rules and flag (don't block) anything that looks off:
-
Cross-Platform Parity: if the diff touches macos/ or linux/ scripts, check whether windows/ has a matching change (and vice versa). A platform-only fix can be intentional — just surface it.
-
No exit in install/uninstall scripts: flag any new exit call added to install.*/uninstall.* (Windows scripts run via irm | iex, so exit would kill the user's shell session).
-
Silent Degradation: flag any new stderr output, or a statusline.*/notify.*/git-refresh.*/subagent-statusline.* code path that could skip its final exit 0.
-
Large single-file diffs (>500 lines): summarize at the file level using --stat rather than line-by-line.
-
Binary files: note their paths in the analysis but don't attempt to describe content changes.
Step 3 -- Write the commit message
Match the repo's existing commit style. Check git log --oneline -5. If the repo uses conventional commit prefixes (fix:, feat:, etc.), use them. If the repo uses plain imperative sentences without prefixes, do the same. When there's no clear pattern (new repo, mixed styles), default to conventional commits: type(optional-scope): summary.
Summary line:
- Imperative mood ("Add", "Fix", "Refactor")
- No period at the end
- Lowercase after any prefix colon
- Must be 72 characters or fewer. After drafting, count the characters. If over 72, rewrite shorter -- drop scope, generalize wording, or move detail to the body. Recount until it fits.
Body:
- Blank line between summary and body
- Explain what and why, not how
- Always use bulleted lists (
- prefix) -- never prose paragraphs
- Group bullets into labeled sections when changes span 3+ distinct areas:
Installers:
- Guard notify-config.json writes so re-runs preserve prefs
- Fix visual toggle fallback when user is not prompted
Statusline:
- Fix Windows cwd collapse matching partial usernames
- Suppress stderr on printf calls (macOS/Linux)
- Use a flat bullet list when changes are in one area or closely related
- If changes affect multiple platforms, note which ones in the relevant bullet
Step 4 -- Verify before committing
Before running the commit, check your own work:
- Count the summary line -- confirm it is 72 characters or fewer. If not, rewrite and recount.
- Cross-check file coverage -- every file from
git status should appear in the body or be explicitly noted as excluded (e.g., binary, untracked infrastructure). Don't silently drop files.
- Confirm no secrets or stray local paths -- re-scan for
.env, key files, credentials, and hardcoded personal paths in the staging list. Warn if found.
- Confirm rule compliance -- re-check the cross-platform-parity, no-
exit, and silent-degradation flags from Step 2. Surface anything still outstanding.
Step 5 -- Stage and commit
Once the message passes Step 4, preview it to the user, then stage and commit directly via the Bash tool. (If the user only asked you to describe or draft the changes rather than commit, stop after the preview — don't commit.)
Stage the specific files (never git add -A) — but only when the index started empty. If git diff --cached already showed staged changes in Step 1, commit exactly what is staged and skip git add entirely: the message covers staged changes only, and git add on a partially staged file would absorb the hunks the user deliberately left out.
git add path/to/file1 path/to/file2
Commit with a quoted heredoc. Your Bash tool runs Git Bash on every platform, so this one form always works and keeps backticks and markdown literal. Pass a short timeout so a stray passphrase prompt can't hang the session:
git commit -m "$(cat <<'EOF'
Fix statusline bugs and harden installers
Installers:
- Guard notify-config.json writes so re-runs preserve prefs
- Add Bash 4+ version check to macOS installer
Statusline:
- Fix cwd collapse matching partial usernames
- Suppress stderr on printf calls
EOF
)"
Confirm the result so the good signature is visible:
git log --show-signature -1 --oneline
Fallback -- hand the commands to the user
If a direct commit fails (a signing passphrase prompt, a failing pre-commit hook) or the user would rather run it themselves, surface the error and print paste-safe commands for their terminal. List specific files, never git add -A. Long single-line commands break at visual wraps, so use multi-line patterns for git add.
On Windows (PowerShell): use @(...) array syntax for git add — PowerShell keeps parsing until the ) closes, so newlines are safe:
```powershell
git add @(
"file1.ps1",
"file2.sh",
"file3.sh"
)
```
Use @'...'@ here-strings for the commit message. The closing '@ must be at column 0 with no leading spaces:
```powershell
git commit -m @'
Fix statusline bugs and harden installers
Installers:
- Guard notify-config.json writes so re-runs preserve prefs
- Add Bash 4+ version check to macOS installer
Statusline:
- Fix Windows cwd collapse matching partial usernames
- Suppress stderr on printf calls (macOS/Linux)
'@
```
If the here-string won't paste cleanly, suggest git commit with no -m flag to open the user's editor instead.
On macOS/Linux (Bash): use \ line continuation for git add:
```bash
git add \
file1.sh \
file2.sh \
file3.sh
```
```bash
git commit -m "$(cat <<'EOF'
Fix statusline bugs and harden installers
Installers:
- Guard notify-config.json writes so re-runs preserve prefs
- Add Bash 4+ version check to macOS installer
Statusline:
- Fix cwd collapse matching partial usernames
- Suppress stderr on printf calls
EOF
)"
```
Edge cases
- Mixed staged and unstaged: commit message covers staged changes only; list unstaged changes separately
- Large diffs (>20 files): lead with
--stat, group by area, suggest splitting if changes are logically independent
- Only untracked files: stage and commit them normally -- describe what they add in the body
- Binary files: note paths, don't describe content
- Commit fails (signing prompt / hook): surface the exact error, don't retry blindly, fall back to the Step 5 paste-safe hand-off
- Merge conflict markers: refuse to produce a commit message until resolved
