Contributor's Guide
Commit Message Guidelines

Commit Message Guidelines

We have very precise rules over how our git commit messages can be formatted. This leads to more readable messages that are easy to follow when looking through the project history. But also, we use the git commit messages to generate the Circuit Parts change log.

Commit Message Format

Each commit message consists of a header, a body and a footer. The header has a special format that includes a type, a scope and a subject:

<type>(<scope>): <subject>
<BLANK LINE>
<body>
<BLANK LINE>
<footer>

The header is mandatory and the scope of the header is optional.

Any line of the commit message cannot be longer than 100 characters! This allows the message to be easier to read on GitHub as well as in various git tools.

The footer should contain a closing reference to an issue (opens in a new tab) if any.

Samples:

docs(changelog): update changelog to v.5
fix(core): order-id updated to latest version
 
Updated order-id to depend on latest version. Earlier versions had depricated methods.

Revert

If the commit reverts a previous commit, it should begin with revert: , followed by the header of the reverted commit. In the body it should say: This reverts commit hash, where the hash is the SHA of the commit being reverted.

Type

Must be one of the following:

  • build: Changes that affect the build system or external dependencies (example scope: npm)
  • ci: Changes to our CI configuration files and scripts (example scope: husky)
  • docs: Documentation only changes
  • feat: A new feature
  • fix: A bug fix
  • perf: A code change that improves performance
  • refactor: A code change that neither fixes a bug nor adds a feature
  • style: Changes that do not affect the meaning of the code (white-space, formatting, missing semi-colons, etc)
  • test: Adding missing tests or correcting existing tests
  • chore: for changes to the build process or auxiliary tools and libraries such as generators, linters, etc.
  • deps: for changes to dependencies.

Scope

  • app: for changes within the app directory.
  • components: for changes to the components of your application.
  • content: for changes to the content of your application.
  • context: for changes related to React context.
  • data: for changes related to data handling or data models.
  • lib: for changes to library code or utility functions.
  • pages: for changes to the pages of your application.
  • public: for changes to public assets like images, stylesheets, etc.
  • types: for changes related to TypeScript types.
  • middleware: for changes to middleware functions.
  • config: for changes to configuration files.
  • scripts: for changes to scripts or commands.
  • tests: for changes to test files or test setup.
  • packages: for changes to packages.
  • other: for changes that don't fit into any of the above categories.
  • changelogs - for changes to changelogs.

Good to know: You could also use more specific scopes like app-account, lib-redux, components-hooks etc., for changes within those specific subdirectories.

Subject

The subject contains a succinct description of the change:

  • use the imperative, present tense: "change" not "changed" nor "changes"
  • don't capitalize the first letter
  • no dot (.) at the end

Body

Just as in the subject, use the imperative, present tense: "change" not "changed" nor "changes". The body should include the motivation for the change and contrast this with previous behavior.

Footer

The footer should contain any information about Breaking Changes and is also the place to reference GitHub issues that this commit Closes.

Breaking Changes should start with the word BREAKING CHANGE: with a space or two newlines. The rest of the commit message is then used for this.

💡

If you are interested in the detailed specification you can visit https://www.conventionalcommits.org/ (opens in a new tab)

Running TestsCoding Guidelines