A CLI for writing better commits, following the conventional commit guidelines
better-commits-demo.mp4
- Follows the conventional commit guidelines
- Highly flexible configuration with sane defaults
- Infers ticket/issue and commit-type from branch
- Consistent branch naming CLI via
better-branch - Checks git status with interactive git add
- Works globally or in your repository
- Pretty prints preview in color
- Support for git emojis per commit-type
- Config validation with specific error messages
npm install -g better-commitsWhen you're ready to commit. To run the CLI in your terminal:
better-commits
# or
npx better-commitsIt will prompt a series of questions. These prompts will build a commit message, which you can preview, before confirming the commit.
To better understand these prompts and their intention, read Conventional Commits Summary
To modify, these prompts, see configuration.
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
All properties are optional, they can be removed from your configuration and will be replaced by the defaults at run-time.
Any property can be removed from the config, it will be replaced by the default at run-time
- See
.better-commits.jsonin this repository as an example
{
"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": "✨"
},
{
"value": "fix",
"label": "fix",
"hint": "A bug fix",
"emoji": "🐛"
},
{
"value": "docs",
"label": "docs",
"hint": "Documentation only changes",
"emoji": "📚"
},
{
"value": "refactor",
"label": "refactor",
"hint": "A code change that neither fixes a bug nor adds a feature",
"emoji": "🔨"
},
{
"value": "perf",
"label": "perf",
"hint": "A code change that improves performance",
"emoji": "🚀"
},
{
"value": "test",
"label": "test",
"hint": "Adding missing tests or correcting existing tests",
"emoji": "🚨"
},
{
"value": "build",
"label": "build",
"hint": "Changes that affect the build system or external dependencies",
"emoji": "🚧"
},
{
"value": "ci",
"label": "ci",
"hint": "Changes to our CI configuration files and scripts",
"emoji": "🤖"
},
{
"value": "chore",
"label": "chore",
"hint": "Other changes that do not modify src or test files",
"emoji": "🧹"
},
{
"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,
"title_position": "start"
},
"commit_title": {
"max_size": 70
},
"commit_body": {
"enable": true,
"required": false
},
"commit_footer": {
"enable": true,
"initial_value": [],
"options": [
"closes",
"breaking-change",
"deprecated",
"custom"
]
},
"breaking_change": {
"add_exclamation_to_title": true
},
"confirm_commit": true,
"print_commit_output": true,
"branch_pre_commands": [],
"branch_post_commands": [],
"branch_user": {
"enable": true,
"required": false,
"separator": "/"
},
"branch_type": {
"enable": true,
"separator": "/"
},
"branch_ticket": {
"enable": true,
"required": false,
"separator": "-"
},
"branch_description": {
"max_length": 70
}
}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-NUMBERorNUMBERare 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
/
Better branch is a secondary feature that works with better commits
- Caches your username
- Uses same type-list/prompt from your config
- Formats branch name
To run the CLI in your terminal:
better-branchOptionally configure pre and post checkout commands, for example:
- checkout and rebase main before branching
- run
npm installbefore branching - run
npm run devafter branching
See branch_pre_commands and branch_post_commands in default config.
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 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.
You can add this badge to your repository to display that you're using a better-commits repository config
[](https://github.com/Everduin94/better-commits)
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.