git-workflow

name	git-workflow
description	Ditto's git conventions — validating changes before committing, writing commit messages that match project style, and attributing regressions with a Regression-of trailer so the release changelog skill can filter them from the "Fixed" section.

Git Workflow

Ditto expects every completed task to end with a git commit. This skill covers the pre-commit validation loop, commit-message conventions, and the Regression-of: trailer used by the release skill to filter intra-release regressions from the changelog.

Pre-commit Validation

Your task is not finished until the code type-checks and builds without errors. In priority order:

1. Type Checking (required) — tsc --noEmit
2. Building/Compilation (required) — vite build
3. Linting (recommended; fix anything critical) — eslint
4. Tests (if available) — vitest run
5. Git commit (required)

The full npm run test script runs all of these in sequence; running it is equivalent to steps 1–4.

Using Git

Use git status and git diff to review changes, and git log to learn the project's commit-message conventions before writing a new one. If you make a mistake, git checkout restores files.

When your changes are complete and validated, create a commit with a message that focuses on why the change was made (not just what). Summaries should fit on one line; a body is warranted for non-trivial changes.

Always commit when you are finished making changes. Non-negotiable — every completed task ends with a commit. Don't leave uncommitted changes.

Contributing Guide

When preparing changes for a merge request, also follow the guidelines in CONTRIBUTING.md. It includes a self-review checklist (step 8) that should be run against your diff before committing.

Attributing Regressions

When a commit fixes a bug that was introduced by an identifiable prior commit, add a Regression-of: trailer at the bottom of the commit message body referencing the offending commit's short SHA:

Fix missing background on expanded emoji picker in feeds

The compose box overhaul accidentally dropped the bg-background class
when refactoring the picker out of QuickReactMenu.

Regression-of: 3aa08ba9

This is a standard Git trailer (compatible with git interpret-trailers) that records the cause-and-effect link directly in history. It is consumed by the release skill to detect intra-release regressions and exclude them from the changelog's "Fixed" section, and it makes future debugging and post-mortems substantially faster.

When to add it

• The commit fixes a bug (not a new feature, refactor, or doc change).
• The introducing commit is identifiable with reasonable effort.

When to skip it

• The bug is pre-existing with no clear single origin.
• The behavior was always wrong (no regression).
• The introducing commit cannot be determined after a brief search.

Finding the introducing commit

• git log -S '<removed-or-changed-string>' — find commits that touched a specific string.
• git log --oneline -- path/to/file — list all commits touching a file.
• git blame -L <start>,<end> -- path/to/file — find who last changed specific lines.

This convention is strongly recommended but not required. When the origin is non-obvious, prioritize shipping the fix over hunting indefinitely.