Skills
skills/ivantorresedge/molcajete.ai/git-committing

git-committing

SKILL.md

Git Committing Standards

Standards for writing clear, concise git commit messages that communicate changes effectively.

Commit Message Format

Structure

<Verb> <what changed>

- <why detail 1>
- <why detail 2>
- <why detail 3>

The first line is the subject. The body (bullet points) is optional but recommended for non-trivial changes. Separate the subject from the body with a blank line.

First Line Rules

  1. Start with an imperative verb (capitalize the first letter):

    • Adds — New files, features, or functionality
    • Fixes — Bug fixes or corrections
    • Updates — Changes to existing features
    • Removes — Deletion of features, files, or code
    • Refactors — Code restructuring without changing behavior
    • Improves — Performance or quality enhancements
    • Moves — File or code relocation
    • Renames — Renaming files, variables, or functions
    • Replaces — Swapping one implementation for another
    • Simplifies — Reducing complexity

  2. Maximum 50 characters for the first line. If it exceeds 50 characters, it is too long — move details to the body.

  3. Describe what changed, not what was wrong:

    • Good: "Fixes login redirect after authentication"
    • Bad: "Fixes bug where users were stuck on login page"

  4. Use simple language — Avoid jargon when plain words work:

    • Good: "Adds user search feature"
    • Bad: "Implements user discovery mechanism"

  5. Conventional commit prefixes (feat:, fix:, test:, chore:, docs:, refactor:, perf:) — Use the appropriate prefix based on the staged changes. Check git log --oneline -20 to adapt to the project's style — if the history does not use prefixes, skip them and use the verb-only format instead.

    • Project uses prefixes: feat: Add user dashboard
    • Project does not use prefixes: Adds user dashboard

Body (Optional)

Use bullet points (hyphens, not paragraphs) to explain why when:

  • The change affects multiple files or areas
  • The reasoning is not obvious from the diff
  • Multiple steps or trade-offs were involved
Refactors authentication flow

- Separates login and registration logic
- Makes code easier to test independently
- Removes duplicate token validation
- Prepares for OAuth integration

For simple, obvious changes, a single subject line is enough:

Fixes typo in README

Updates dependencies to latest versions

Issue References

Place issue references at the end of the subject line in parentheses:

Fixes payment processing error (#123)

Do not use issue tracker language as the subject — "Resolves #123" says nothing about what changed.

See references/message-format.md for detailed format rules. See references/examples.md for good and bad examples.

No AI Attribution (CRITICAL)

THIS IS MANDATORY — NO EXCEPTIONS.

When creating commit messages:

  • NEVER add "Generated with Claude Code" or similar
  • NEVER add "Co-Authored-By: Claude" or any AI co-author line
  • NEVER add "In collaboration with Claude AI" or similar
  • NEVER add any AI emoji (no robot emoji, no sparkles, no similar)
  • NEVER add "AI-assisted" or similar phrases
  • NEVER add "Created using Copilot" or any tool mentions
  • NEVER add attribution links to Claude or AI tools

Commits must look like normal human development:

  • Bad: "Refactors authentication logic with help from Claude"
  • Bad: "AI-assisted refactoring of auth module"
  • Good: "Refactors authentication logic"

Focus on what changed, not how it was produced. The process of creating code is irrelevant to the commit message. Only describe the change itself.

Commit Best Practices

Make Atomic Commits

Each commit represents one logical change:

  • One bug fix per commit
  • One feature per commit
  • One refactoring per commit

Do not mix unrelated changes:

  • Bad: Fixing a bug AND adding a feature in one commit
  • Bad: Updating dependencies AND refactoring code in one commit

Small, frequent commits are better than large, infrequent ones: easier to review, easier to revert if needed, better git history, clearer project progression.

Review the Diff Before Committing

Use git diff --staged to check:

  • No debug code included (console.log, print statements)
  • No commented-out code
  • No temporary changes
  • No unintended file changes

Stage Specific Files

Only stage files related to the change:

# GOOD: Stage specific files
git add src/auth.js tests/auth.test.js

# AVOID: Staging everything blindly
git add .

Test Changes Before Committing

  • Run tests if available
  • Test manually if needed
  • Fix errors or warnings before committing

Never Commit Secrets

Do not commit: API keys, passwords, private keys, access tokens, .env files with secrets.

Never Commit Debug Code

Remove before committing: console.log() statements, commented-out code blocks, temporary test data, debug flags.

Write for Future Readers

Commit messages should help understand the change months from now:

  • What changed?
  • Why did it change?
  • What was the context?

Good commit history makes git log --oneline a useful project timeline:

a1b2c3d Adds user authentication
b2c3d4e Fixes login redirect
c3d4e5f Updates password validation
d4e5f6g Refactors token handling

Emergency: Committed a Secret

  1. Do not just delete the file — the secret is in git history
  2. Rotate or invalidate the secret immediately
  3. Use tools like git-filter-repo to remove from history

Emergency: Committed to Wrong Branch

git reset HEAD~1    # Undo commit, keep changes
git stash           # Stash changes
git checkout correct-branch
git stash pop       # Apply changes
git add .
git commit

Amend Safety

When to Amend

Use git commit --amend only for minor corrections to the last commit:

  • Typos in the commit message
  • Forgotten files
  • Small code fixes

Amend Rules

  1. Only amend unpushed commits — Never amend commits that have been pushed to a shared remote. Amending rewrites history and causes problems for other contributors.
  2. Check authorship first — Verify with git log -1 --format='%an %ae' that the commit is yours before amending.
  3. Use a new commit for significant changes — If the fix is more than trivial, create a new commit instead of amending.

Commit Orchestration

This workflow runs when the user asks to commit (natural language or /m:commit).

Mandatory Requirements

NEVER STAGE FILES. Do not run git add, git reset, or git restore --staged. Only commit what is already staged. If nothing is staged, stop with an error.

NEVER ADD AI ATTRIBUTION. No "Generated with Claude Code", no "Co-Authored-By: Claude", no AI emoji, no tool mentions. Commits must look like normal human development.

USE AskUserQuestion FOR ALL CONFIRMATIONS. Never ask questions as plain text. Never end your response with a question. The only way to ask for confirmation is the AskUserQuestion tool.

Step 1: Verify Staged Changes

Run git diff --staged --stat using Bash.

If no staged changes exist, show this error and stop:

No staged changes found.

Stage your changes first:
  git add <files>

Do not offer to stage files. Do not run git add. Stop immediately.

Step 2: Gather Context and Assess Scope

Run these three commands in parallel and store the output for later steps:

  1. git diff --staged --stat → store as DIFF_STAT
  2. git diff --staged → store as DIFF
  3. git log --oneline -10 → store as RECENT_LOG

Use DIFF_STAT and DIFF to understand the scope of the staged changes.

A commit is too large when the staged changes contain 2 or more logically independent concerns. Examples:

  • A new feature AND an unrelated bug fix
  • A refactor AND a dependency update
  • Changes to module A's API AND an unrelated config change to module B
  • A new command AND a skill update AND a version bump (these are related -- one logical change)

Related changes are NOT too large. A version bump + changelog + the feature it describes = one logical unit. Multiple files touched by one feature = one logical unit. Judge by intent, not by file count.

If the changes represent a single logical concern, proceed to Step 3 (single commit flow).

If the changes contain multiple independent concerns, proceed to Step 2b (split flow).

Step 2b: Offer to Split

Use AskUserQuestion:

  • Question: "These staged changes touch multiple independent concerns:\n\n{list each concern as a bullet with affected files}\n\nWant to split them into separate commits?"
  • Header: "Split"
  • Options:
    1. "Split into {N} commits" -- Break into logical commits
    2. "Commit everything together" -- Single commit as-is
  • multiSelect: false

If the user chooses to commit everything together, proceed to Step 3 (single commit flow).

If the user chooses to split, proceed to Step 2c.

Step 2c: Plan the Split

Launch a Task with subagent_type="general-purpose". Pass DIFF_STAT, DIFF, and RECENT_LOG inline — the sub-agent must NOT run git commands or read files:

Plan how to split these staged changes into logical, atomic commits.

## Commit message rules
- Start with imperative verb: Adds, Fixes, Updates, Removes, Refactors, Improves, Moves, Renames, Replaces, Simplifies
- First line max 50 characters — move details to body bullets
- Body bullets (hyphens) explain WHY, only for non-trivial changes
- Match project prefix convention from the recent log below
- NEVER mention AI, Claude, or tools

## File summary
{DIFF_STAT}

## Full diff
{DIFF}

## Recent commits (match style)
{RECENT_LOG}

Group the changes into logical, atomic commits. Each commit = one concern.

Return a JSON array of commit groups:
- "message": the commit message
- "files": array of file paths for this commit
- "reason": one sentence explaining why these files belong together

Example:
[
  {"message": "Adds user search endpoint\n\n- Adds GET /users/search with query parameter\n- Includes pagination support", "files": ["src/routes/users.ts", "src/services/search.ts", "tests/routes/users.test.ts"], "reason": "All files implement the search feature"},
  {"message": "Fixes typo in README", "files": ["README.md"], "reason": "Unrelated documentation fix"}
]

Return ONLY the JSON array, nothing else.

Step 2d: Execute Split Commits

Before starting the loop:

  1. Capture the originally staged files: Run git diff --staged --name-only and store the list as ORIGINALLY_STAGED.
  2. Unstage everything: Run git reset HEAD -- . to clear the staging area. This does not touch the working tree -- all changes remain as unstaged modifications.

For each commit group, in order:

  1. Stage only this group's files: git add {files}
  2. Show the commit to the user using AskUserQuestion:
    • Question: "Commit {N} of {total}:\n\n\n{message}\n\n\nFiles: {file list}"
    • Header: "Commit {N}/{total}"
    • Options:
      1. "Yes, commit" -- Commit this group
      2. "Skip this one" -- Move to next group without committing
    • multiSelect: false
  3. If confirmed, write message to /tmp/claude/commit-msg.txt and run git commit -F /tmp/claude/commit-msg.txt && rm /tmp/claude/commit-msg.txt && git log --oneline -1
  4. If skipped, run git reset HEAD -- {files} to unstage this group's files back to the working tree, then continue to next group.

After all groups are processed:

  • Collect the files from any skipped groups. Re-stage them so the user's staging area reflects what they had minus what was committed: git add {skipped files}.
  • Files that were NOT in ORIGINALLY_STAGED are never touched -- they remain as unstaged working tree changes throughout.

Report all commits created (hash + message for each).

Step 3: Draft Commit Message

Draft the commit message directly — do NOT launch a sub-agent. You already have DIFF_STAT, DIFF, and RECENT_LOG in context from Step 2. Use the commit message rules from this skill (imperative verb, 50-char limit, body bullets for non-trivial changes, match project prefix convention from RECENT_LOG, no AI attribution).

Step 4: Get Confirmation

Use AskUserQuestion with the drafted message:

  • Question: "Commit with this message?\n\n\n{drafted message}\n"
  • Header: "Commit"
  • Options:
    1. "Yes, commit" -- Commit with this message
    2. "Edit message" -- Modify the commit message
  • multiSelect: false

If the user types in Other or selects "Edit message":

  • Treat their input as instructions to modify the message
  • Update the message accordingly
  • Invoke AskUserQuestion again with the updated message
  • Repeat until the user selects "Yes, commit"

Step 5: Execute Commit

After confirmation, write the commit message file using the Write tool, then commit using Bash. Do NOT use heredocs -- zsh's internal heredoc temp file creation is blocked by the sandbox.

  1. Use the Write tool to create /tmp/claude/commit-msg.txt with the confirmed message
  2. Then run in a single Bash call:
git commit -F /tmp/claude/commit-msg.txt && rm /tmp/claude/commit-msg.txt && git log --oneline -1

Report the result: show the commit hash and message.

Orchestration Rules

  • Use AskUserQuestion for ALL user interaction. Never ask questions as plain text.
  • In the single-commit flow (Steps 3-5): never stage or unstage files. The user manages staging.
  • In the split flow (Step 2d): staging is managed by the orchestration. Only stage files from ORIGINALLY_STAGED. Never touch files that were not originally staged.
  • Never add AI or tool attribution to commit messages.
  • Show the complete message in the confirmation prompt, never a summary.
  • In the single-commit flow, draft the message directly — no sub-agent. Sub-agents are only used in the split flow (Step 2c).
  • During split flow, if any commit fails, re-stage all remaining uncommitted files from ORIGINALLY_STAGED so the user's staging area is restored, then stop and report the error.

Reference Files

File Description
references/message-format.md Detailed commit message format rules, verb list, body guidelines
references/examples.md Good and bad commit message examples for common scenarios
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