git-commit

Git commit

When to use

• The user asks you to commit, write a commit message, or "save this to git".

Never commit on your own initiative, even at the end of a task.

Before you start

• Check the repo state with git status --short and the current branch with git branch --show-current.
• If changes are already staged, the commit covers only those. If nothing is staged, ask which files to include; never stage unrelated changes or files you didn't touch without asking.
• Check for a project commit convention (Conventional Commits, commitlint.config.*, a CONTRIBUTING.md section, a commit template). If one exists, follow it and keep the dash-list body below the required header. Otherwise use the format below.

Steps

1. Inspect the changes with git. Read the actual diff, not just file names:

   git diff --staged --stat
   git diff --staged
   

   (Use git diff for unstaged changes the user wants to include, after they confirm.)

2. Make notes of what changed, grouped by intent rather than by file.

3. Draft the message as a dash list, one line per change:

   • concise, in present tense ("Add", "Fix", "Remove", not "Added" or "Adds");
   • focused on what changed, not how you did it;
   • short lines; keep the whole message small. Split unrelated work into separate commits instead of one long message.

4. Show the message as plain text and ask for approval. Show only the message, not the command:

   - Add rate limiting to the login endpoint
   - Fix the empty-state message on the orders page
   - Remove the unused date helper
   

   Wait for the user to approve or edit it.

5. Scan staged files for secrets if gitleaks is installed (see secrets-scan):

   gitleaks git --staged --redact --no-banner -v
   

   If it finds anything, stop, tell the user what and where (never the value), and follow secrets-scan. If gitleaks isn't installed, check the diff yourself for keys, tokens, passwords, .env files and private keys, and say that you did a manual check.

6. Commit with the approved lines, one argument per line: