name: commit-messages
description: Invoke BEFORE committing changes. Provides commit message conventions: lowercase, past tense, subject:description format. Use this skill whenever the user commits, creates commit messages, stages changes, uses /commit, tags releases, or discusses commit style - even for simple one-liner commits.
Commit Message Style
Follow these conventions for commit messages:
Basic Rules
- Subject line in lowercase, description (if present) uses normal sentence case
- No period at the end of subject line
- Use past tense for verbs ("added", "fixed", not "add", "fix") - the commit describes what happened, so the git log reads as a chronological history
- Nouns are fine as-is ("fix" as noun is OK, e.g., "compatibility fix")
- Keep first line under 70 characters when possible
- Write in English only
Format
Use plain subject for straightforward changes:
added support for localefixed escaping after {contentType xml}
Use [subject]: [description] when it clarifies which part of the codebase changed:
CSS: reorganizationEngine: refactoring traverser logicFilters: added escapeHtml()
Omit the subject when the change affects the whole project generically.
Multi-line Messages
For changes that need more context, add a blank line after the subject and then a description:
added support for custom authenticators
The IAuthenticator interface now accepts a factory callback.
This enables lazy initialization of auth providers.
Use multi-line messages when the "why" isn't obvious from the subject alone.
Common Patterns
- Feature additions:
added [feature]
- Bug fixes:
fixed [issue]
- Releases:
Released version X.Y.Z (exception to the lowercase rule)
- Deprecations:
[method] deprecated
- Breaking changes: include "(BC break)" in message
- Work in progress:
wip
Routine/Maintenance Commits
Keep these simple, no additional context needed:
vendor - dependency updatescs - coding style fixestypos - typo corrections
