Conventional Commit Messages

Follow these conventions when creating commits.

Prerequisites

Before committing, ensure you're working on a feature branch, not the main branch.

bash

# Check current branch
git branch --show-current

If you're on main or master, create a new branch first:

bash

# Create and switch to a new branch
git checkout -b <type>/<short-description>

Branch naming should follow the pattern: <type>/<short-description> where type matches the commit type (e.g., feat/add-user-auth, fix/null-pointer-error, refactor/extract-validation).

Format

code

<type>(<scope>): <subject>

<body>

<footer>

The header is required. Scope is optional. All lines must stay under 100 characters.

Commit Types

Type	Purpose
`build`	Build system or CI changes
`chore`	Routine maintenance tasks
`ci`	Continuous integration configuration
`deps`	Dependency updates
`docs`	Documentation changes
`feat`	New feature
`fix`	Bug fix
`perf`	Performance improvement
`refactor`	Code refactoring (no behavior change)
`revert`	Revert a previous commit
`style`	Code style and formatting
`test`	Tests added, updated or improved

Subject Line Rules

•Use imperative, present tense: "Add feature" not "Added feature"
•Capitalize the first letter
•No period at the end
•Maximum 70 characters

Body Guidelines

•Explain what and why, not how
•Use imperative mood and present tense
•Include motivation for the change
•Contrast with previous behavior when relevant

Conventional Commits

The commit contains the following structural elements, to communicate intent to the consumers of your library:

•fix: a commit of the type fix patches a bug in your codebase (this correlates with PATCH in Semantic Versioning).
•feat: a commit of the type feat introduces a new feature to the codebase (this correlates with MINOR in Semantic Versioning).
•BREAKING CHANGE: a commit that has a footer BREAKING CHANGE:, or appends a ! after the type/scope, introduces a breaking API change (correlating with MAJOR in Semantic Versioning). A BREAKING CHANGE can be part of commits of any type.
•types other than fix: and feat: are allowed, for example @commitlint/config-conventional (based on the Angular convention) recommends build:, chore:, ci:, docs:, style:, refactor:, perf:, test:, and others.
•footers other than BREAKING CHANGE: <description> may be provided and follow a convention similar to git trailer format.

Examples

Simple fix

code

fix(api): Handle null response in user endpoint

The user API could return null for deleted accounts, causing a crash
in the dashboard. Add null check before accessing user properties.

Feature with scope

code

feat(alerts): Add Slack thread replies for alert updates

When an alert is updated or resolved, post a reply to the original
Slack thread instead of creating a new message. This keeps related
notifications grouped together.

Refactor

code

refactor: Extract common validation logic to shared module

Move duplicate validation code from three endpoints into a shared
validator class. No behavior change.

Breaking change

code

feat(api)!: Remove deprecated v1 endpoints

Remove all v1 API endpoints that were deprecated in version 23.1.
Clients should migrate to v2 endpoints.

BREAKING CHANGE: v1 endpoints no longer available

Revert Format

code

revert: feat(api): Add new endpoint

This reverts commit abc123def456.

Reason: Caused performance regression in production.

Principles

•Each commit should be a single, stable change
•Commits should be independently reviewable
•The repository should be in a working state after each commit

References

•Conventional Commits Specification