commit

name	commit
description	Use when the user wants to create a commit message or commit changes. Follows Conventional Commits specification with feat, fix, ci, chore, docs, style, refactor, perf, test prefixes. Author-neutral messages, no AI persona. Triggers on: commit, write commit message, commit changes, describe change.

Commit Message Skill

Create well-structured, author-neutral commit messages following the Conventional Commits specification.

Commit Message Format

<type>(<optional scope>): <short summary>

<optional body>

<optional footer>

Types

Type	When to use
feat	A new feature for the user
fix	A bug fix
docs	Documentation changes only
style	Formatting, missing semicolons, whitespace — no logic change
refactor	Code change that neither fixes a bug nor adds a feature
perf	Performance improvement
test	Adding or correcting tests
build	Changes affecting the build system or external dependencies
ci	Changes to CI configuration files and scripts
chore	Maintenance tasks, dependency updates, tooling — no production code
revert	Reverts a previous commit

Summary Line Rules

• 72 characters max (including type and scope prefix)
• Imperative mood: "add feature" not "added feature" or "adds feature"
• Lowercase after the colon
• No period at the end
• Describes what the change does, not how or why (that goes in the body)

Body (when needed)

• Separate from the summary with a blank line
• Wrap at 72 characters per line
• Explain the what and why, not the how
• Use bullet points (-) for multiple points

Footer

• Use for breaking changes: BREAKING CHANGE: <description>
• Use for issue references: Closes #123, Fixes #456
• Never include AI authorship lines — no "Generated with", "Co-Authored-By: Claude", or any AI attribution
• If a sign-off is needed, read the user's identity from jj config get user.name and jj config get user.email, then use: Signed-off-by: <name> <email>

Style Guidelines

• Author-neutral: The message describes the change, not who made it or with what tools
• No AI persona: Never mention AI tools, Claude, or automated generation anywhere in the message
• Concise: Prefer one precise sentence over two vague ones

Workflow

1. Run jj diff to inspect the current working copy changes, or jj diff -r <rev> for a specific change
2. If the working copy is empty, run jj status and ask the user what to include
3. Analyze the diff to understand the nature and scope of changes
4. Select the appropriate type; if multiple types apply, use the dominant change or propose splitting into separate changes
5. Draft the summary line — imperative mood, lowercase after colon, under 72 chars
6. Add a body only when the why is non-obvious from the diff
7. Present the message to the user for approval
8. Apply with jj describe -m "<message>" or jj commit -m "<message>"

Examples

feat(auth): add OAuth2 login flow with Google provider

fix(api): handle nil pointer when user session expires

Requests to protected endpoints returned a 500 instead of 401
when the session token was present but the backing store had
already evicted the entry.

refactor(db): extract query builder into separate package

chore: upgrade dependencies to latest patch versions

ci: add matrix build for Go 1.21 and 1.22

feat(payments)!: replace Stripe v2 with v3 SDK

BREAKING CHANGE: PaymentIntent now requires an idempotency key.
Clients must pass X-Idempotency-Key on all POST /payments requests.

Anti-patterns to Avoid

• fix stuff — too vague
• WIP — not a finished commit message
• Update code — says nothing
• feat: Added new button — past tense, capital after colon
• fix: fixed the bug that was causing issues with the login page when users tried to log in using their email address on mobile devices — over 72 chars, verbose
• Any mention of "Claude", "AI", "generated", "co-authored by AI", etc.