---

name: git-commit-helper description: Provides expert guidance for Git commit messages, including conventional commit formatting and best practices. Use when creating or editing Git commit messages. allowed-tools:

• Bash
• Read
• Write
• Edit
• Glob
• Grep

---

Overview

Provides expert guidance for creating conventional commit messages that follow industry best practices. Helps generate clear, consistent commit messages by analyzing staged changes.

Conventional Commit Format

<type>(<scope>): <description>

[optional body]

[optional footer(s)]

Commit Types

• feat: A new feature for the user
• fix: A bug fix
• docs: Documentation only changes
• style: Changes that don't affect code meaning (white-space, formatting, missing semi-colons, etc.)
• refactor: Code change that neither fixes a bug nor adds a feature
• perf: Code change that improves performance
• test: Adding missing tests or correcting existing tests
• build: Changes that affect the build system or external dependencies
• ci: Changes to CI configuration files and scripts
• chore: Other changes that don't modify src or test files
• revert: Reverts a previous commit

Rules

1. Type is mandatory: Choose the most appropriate type from the list above
2. Scope is optional: Add in parentheses to specify what part of codebase (e.g., feat(auth):, fix(api):)
3. Description:
   • Use imperative mood ("add" not "added" or "adds")
   • Don't capitalize first letter
   • No period at the end
   • Keep under 72 characters
4. Body is optional: Provide context about what and why, not how
5. Footer is optional: Reference issues, note breaking changes

Examples

Simple commit

feat: add user authentication

With scope

fix(auth): prevent token expiration on refresh

With body

refactor(api): restructure endpoint handlers

Move handler logic into separate service layer to improve
testability and maintain single responsibility principle.

Breaking change

feat(api): change authentication response format

BREAKING CHANGE: API now returns user object instead of just token.
Update all API consumers to handle new response structure.

Multiple footers

fix(database): resolve connection pool exhaustion

Fixes #123
Closes #456