We have very precise rules over how our git commit messages can be formatted. This leads to more readable messages that are easy to follow when looking through the project history. But also, we use the git commit messages to generate the change log.
The commit message formatting can be added using a typical git workflow or through the use of a CLI
wizard (Commitizen). To use the wizard, run npm run commit
in your terminal after staging your changes in git.
Each commit message consists of a header, a body and a footer. The header has a special format that includes a type, a scope and a subject:
<type>(<scope>): <subject>
<BLANK LINE>
<body>
<BLANK LINE>
<footer>
The header is mandatory and the scope of the header is optional.
Any line of the commit message cannot be longer 100 characters! This allows the message to be easier to read in various git tools.
If the commit reverts a previous commit, it should begin with revert:
, followed by the header
of the reverted commit.
In the body it should say: This reverts commit <hash>.
, where the hash is the SHA of the commit
being reverted.
A commit with this format is automatically created by the git revert
command.
Must be one of the following:
- feat: A new feature
- fix: A bug fix
- docs: Documentation only changes
- style: Changes that do not affect the meaning of the code (white-space, formatting, missing semi-colons, etc)
- refactor: A code change that neither fixes a bug nor adds a feature
- perf: A code change that improves performance
- test: Adding missing or correcting existing tests
- build: Changes that affect the build system or external dependencies (example scopes: gulp, broccoli, npm)
- ci: Changes to our CI configuration files and scripts (example scopes: Travis, Circle, BrowserStack, SauceLabs)
- chore: Changes to the build process or auxiliary tools and libraries such as documentation generation
- revert: Reverts a previous commit
The scope could be anything specifying place of the commit change. For example core
, README
, ui
, etc...
You can use *
when the change affects more than a single scope.
The subject contains succinct description of the change:
- use the imperative, present tense: "change" not "changed" nor "changes"
- don't capitalize first letter
- no dot (.) at the end
Just as in the subject, use the imperative, present tense: "change" not "changed" nor "changes". The body should include the motivation for the change and contrast this with previous behavior.
The footer should contain any information about Breaking Changes and is also the place to reference Jira issues that this commit closes.
Breaking Changes should start with the word BREAKING CHANGE:
with a space or two newlines.
The rest of the commit message is then used for this.
A detailed explanation can be found in this document.