A CLI for writing better commits, following the conventional commits specification.
better-commits-demo.mp4
- Generate conventional commits through a series of prompts
- Highly configurable with sane defaults
- Infers ticket and commit-type from branch for consistent & fast commits
- Consistent branch creation with flexible workflow hooks via
better-branch
- Interactive git status/add on commit
- Preview commit messages in color
- Support for git emojis per commit-type
- Configure globally or per repository
- Config validation and error messaging
As a side-effect of formatting messages
- Auto populate PR title / body
- Automate semantic releases
- Automate changelogs
- Automatically link & close related tickets / issues
npm install -g better-commits
When you're ready to commit. To run the CLI in your terminal:
better-commits
# or
npx better-commits
It will prompt a series of questions. These prompts will build a commit message, which you can preview, before confirming the commit.
Some of the values in these prompts will be infered by your branch name and auto populated. You can adjust this in your .better-commits.json
configuration file.
To better understand these prompts and their intention, read Conventional Commits Summary
Your first time running better-commits
, a default config will be generated in your $HOME
directory, named .better-commits.json
- This config will be used if a repository-specific config cannot be found.
To create a repository-specific config, navigate to the root of your project.
- run
better-commits-init
- This will create a default config named
.better-commits.json
Better-commits (& better-branch) are highly flexible with sane defaults. These options allow you specify whats best for your workflow.
Note
All properties are optional and can be removed from the config. It will be replaced by the default at run-time.
- See
.better-commits.json
in this repository as an example
Expand / Collapse
{
"check_status": true,
"commit_type": {
"enable": true,
"initial_value": "feat",
"infer_type_from_branch": true,
"append_emoji_to_label": false,
"append_emoji_to_commit": false,
"options": [
{
"value": "feat",
"label": "feat",
"hint": "A new feature",
"emoji": "β¨",
"trailer": "Changelog: feature"
},
{
"value": "fix",
"label": "fix",
"hint": "A bug fix",
"emoji": "π",
"trailer": "Changelog: fix"
},
{
"value": "docs",
"label": "docs",
"hint": "Documentation only changes",
"emoji": "π",
"trailer": "Changelog: documentation"
},
{
"value": "refactor",
"label": "refactor",
"hint": "A code change that neither fixes a bug nor adds a feature",
"emoji": "π¨",
"trailer": "Changelog: refactor"
},
{
"value": "perf",
"label": "perf",
"hint": "A code change that improves performance",
"emoji": "π",
"trailer": "Changelog: performance"
},
{
"value": "test",
"label": "test",
"hint": "Adding missing tests or correcting existing tests",
"emoji": "π¨",
"trailer": "Changelog: test"
},
{
"value": "build",
"label": "build",
"hint": "Changes that affect the build system or external dependencies",
"emoji": "π§",
"trailer": "Changelog: build"
},
{
"value": "ci",
"label": "ci",
"hint": "Changes to our CI configuration files and scripts",
"emoji": "π€",
"trailer": "Changelog: ci"
},
{
"value": "chore",
"label": "chore",
"hint": "Other changes that do not modify src or test files",
"emoji": "π§Ή",
"trailer": "Changelog: chore"
},
{
"value": "",
"label": "none"
}
]
},
"commit_scope": {
"enable": true,
"custom_scope": false,
"initial_value": "app",
"options": [
{
"value": "app",
"label": "app"
},
{
"value": "shared",
"label": "shared"
},
{
"value": "server",
"label": "server"
},
{
"value": "tools",
"label": "tools"
},
{
"value": "",
"label": "none"
}
]
},
"check_ticket": {
"infer_ticket": true,
"confirm_ticket": true,
"add_to_title": true,
"append_hashtag": false,
"surround": "",
"title_position": "start"
},
"commit_title": {
"max_size": 70
},
"commit_body": {
"enable": true,
"required": false
},
"commit_footer": {
"enable": true,
"initial_value": [],
"options": [
"closes",
"trailer",
"breaking-change",
"deprecated",
"custom"
]
},
"breaking_change": {
"add_exclamation_to_title": true
},
"confirm_commit": true,
"confirm_with_editor": false,
"print_commit_output": true,
"branch_pre_commands": [],
"branch_post_commands": [],
"worktree_pre_commands": [],
"worktree_post_commands": [],
"branch_user": {
"enable": true,
"required": false,
"separator": "/"
},
"branch_type": {
"enable": true,
"separator": "/"
},
"branch_version": {
"enable": false,
"required": false,
"separator": "/"
},
"branch_ticket": {
"enable": true,
"required": false,
"separator": "-"
},
"branch_description": {
"max_length": 70,
"separator": ""
},
"branch_action_default": "branch",
"branch_order": [
"user",
"version",
"type",
"ticket",
"description"
],
"enable_worktrees": true,
"overrides": {
"shell": "/bin/sh"
}
}
Expand / Collapse
.
refers to nesting. i.e. if a property is commit_type.enable
then expect in the config for it to be:
"commit_type": {
"enable": true
}
Property | Description |
---|---|
check_status |
If true run interactive git status |
commit_type.enable |
If true include commit type |
commit_type.initial_value |
Initial selection of commit type |
commit_type.infer_type_from_branch |
If true infer type from branch name |
commit_type.append_emoji_to_label |
If true append emoji to prompt |
commit_type.append_emoji_to_commit |
If true append emoji to commit |
commit_type.options.value |
Commit type prompt value |
commit_type.options.label |
Commit type prompt label |
commit_type.options.hint |
Commit type inline hint (like this) |
commit_type.options.emoji |
Commit type emoji |
commit_type.options.trailer |
Commit type trailer |
commit_scope.enable |
If true include commit scope |
commit_scope.custom_scope |
If true allow custom scope at run-time |
commit_scope.initial_value |
Default commit scope selected |
commit_scope.options.value |
Commit scope value |
commit_scope.options.label |
Commit scope label |
check_ticket.infer_ticket |
If true infer ticket from branch name |
check_ticket.confirm_ticket |
If true manually confirm inference |
check_ticket.add_to_title |
If true add ticket to title |
check_ticket.append_hashtag |
If true add hashtag to ticket (Ideal for Github Issues) |
check_ticket.title_position |
"start" (of description) (default), "end", "before-colon" |
check_ticket.surround |
"" (default), "[]", "()", "{}" - Wraps ticket in title |
commit_title.max_size |
Max size of title including scope, type, etc... |
commit_body.enable |
If true include body |
commit_body.required |
If true body is required |
commit_footer.enable |
If true include footer |
commit_footer.initial_value |
Initial values selected in footer |
commit_footer.options |
Footer options |
breaking_change.add_exclamation_to_title |
If true adds exclamation mark to title for breaking changes |
confirm_commit |
If true manually confirm commit at end |
confirm_with_editor |
Confirm / Edit commit with $GIT_EDITOR / $EDITOR |
print_commit_output |
If true pretty print commit preview |
overrides.shell |
Override default shell, useful for windows users |
Branch configuration (same config file, split for readability)
Property | Description |
---|---|
branch_pre_commands |
Array of shell commands to run before branching |
branch_post_commands |
Array of shell commands to run after branching |
worktree_pre_commands |
Array of shell commands to run before creating worktree |
worktree_post_commands |
Array of shell commands to run after creating worktree |
branch_user.enable |
If enabled include user name |
branch_user.required |
If enabled require user name |
branch_user.separator |
Branch delimeter - "/" (default), "-", "_" |
branch_type.enable |
If enabled include type |
branch_type.separator |
Branch delimeter - "/" (default), "-", "_" |
branch_ticket.enable |
If enabled include ticket |
branch_ticket.required |
If enabled require ticket |
branch_ticket.separator |
Branch delimeter - "/", "-" (default), "_" |
branch_description.max_length |
Max length branch name |
branch_description.separator |
Branch delimeter - "" (default), "/", "-", "_" |
branch_version.enable |
If enabled include version |
branch_version.required |
If enabled require version |
branch_version.separator |
Branch delimeter - "", "/" (default), "-", "_" |
branch_order |
Order of branch name values (doesn't effect prompt order) |
branch_action_default |
"branch" or "worktree" |
enable_worktrees |
If false, always default to branch action |
better-commits
will attempt to infer the ticket/issue and the commit-type from your branch name. It will auto populate the corresponding field if found.
Ticket / Issue-Number
- If a
STRING-NUMBER
orNUMBER
are at the start of the branch name or after a/
Commit Type
- If a type is at the start of the branch or is followed by a
/
Note
Using better-branch
with better-commits
can supercharge your git workflow.
Make sure to try it out!
Better branch is a secondary feature that works with better commits
- Supports consistent branch naming conventions
- Uses same type-list/prompt from your config
- Enables better-commits to infer type & ticket
- Caches your username for speedy branching
To run the CLI in your terminal:
better-branch
better-branch
will prompt for Branch or Worktree. Creating a Worktree with better-branch
is a great way to create worktrees while maintaining consistent branch naming conventions.
The worktree flow creates a folder/worktree with your branch description and a git branch inside with your full branch name.
Note
Creating a worktree named everduin94/feat/TAC-123-add-worktrees
with the native git command would create a nested folder for each /
. better-branch
removes the hassle by creating 1 folder while still using the full name for the branch.
Optionally configure pre and post checkout commands, for example:
- checkout and rebase main before branching
- run
npm install
before branching - run
npm run dev
after branching
See branch_pre_commands and branch_post_commands in default config. (or worktree_pre_commands and worktree_post_commands for creating worktrees)
better-commits
works with Semantic Release
- See package.json and .github/workflows/publish.yml for example
If you use better-commits
to create your first commit on a new branch
- When you open a PR for that branch, it will properly auto-populate the title and body.
- When you squash/merge, all later commits like "addressing comments" or "fixing mistake". Will be prefixed with an asterisk for easy deletion. This way, you maintain your pretty commit even when squashing.
If you're using Github issues to track your work, and select the closes
footer option when writing your commit. Github will automatically link and close that issue when your pr is merged
better-commits
can append a commit trailer per commit type. This allows you to automate change logs with tools like Gitlab.
better-commits is much smaller than its alternative commitizen
better-commits
uses native git
commands under the hood. So any hooks, tools, or staging should work as if it was a normal commit.
Setting confirm_with_editor=true
will allow you to edit/confirm a commit with your editor.
- For example, to edit with Neovim:
git config --global core.editor "nvim"
- For VS Code,
git config --global core.editor "code -n --wait"
You can add this badge to your repository to display that you're using a better-commits repository config
TTY initialization failed: uv_tty_init returned EBADF (bad file descriptor)
. This may happen because you're running something like git-bash on Windows. Try another terminal/command-prompt or winpty
to see if its still an issue.
If your are having issues with multilines for commits on windows, you can override the shell via your .better-commits.json
config.
Example
"overrides": {
"shell": "c:\\Program Files\\Git\\bin\\bash.exe"
}