smart-commit

Smart Commit Message Generator

Generate clear, well-structured commit messages by analyzing your staged changes.

When to Activate

• User asks to commit with a good message
• User says /smart-commit or "commit this" or "write a commit message"
• User has staged changes and wants help describing them

Instructions

Step 1: Check Staged Changes

# What's staged?
git diff --cached --stat

# Detailed diff of staged changes
git diff --cached

# Any unstaged changes the user might want to include?
git diff --stat

If nothing is staged:

1. Show unstaged changes with git diff --stat
2. Ask the user what to stage, or suggest git add -p for selective staging
3. Stop until changes are staged

Step 2: Analyze the Diff

Read the staged diff and determine:

1. Type: What kind of change is this?

   • feat — New functionality
   • fix — Bug repair
   • refactor — Restructuring without behavior change
   • perf — Performance improvement
   • test — Adding or fixing tests
   • docs — Documentation only
   • chore — Build, CI, dependencies, config
   • style — Formatting, whitespace (no logic change)

2. Scope (optional): What area of the codebase?

   • Module name, component, feature area
   • Only include if the project uses scoped commits

3. Subject: One line summarizing the change

   • Imperative mood: "Add feature" not "Added feature"
   • Under 50 characters (hard limit: 72)
   • Lowercase first word (after type prefix)
   • No period at the end

4. Body (if needed): Explain WHY, not WHAT

   • The diff shows WHAT changed — the message should explain WHY
   • Include motivation, context, or trade-offs
   • Wrap at 72 characters
   • Separate from subject with blank line

5. Footer (if applicable):

   • BREAKING CHANGE: for breaking changes
   • Closes #123 for issue references
   • Co-authored-by: for pair programming

Step 3: Check Recent History

# Match the project's commit style
git log --oneline -10