Git commit messages - Juan Olvera

Each commit message consists of a header, a body, and a footer.

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

Header

The header is mandatory and the scope is optional.

Type

Must be one of the following:

feat: introduces a new feature to the codebase
fix: patches a bug in your codebase
refactor: improves the code without changing functionality
BREAKING CHANGE: major version

Additional types:

build: a change that affects the build system or external dependencies
chore: same as build but chore is preferred, also any change that doesn’t fit in any other type
ci: changes to the CI configuration
docs: changes to the documentation
style: white-space, formatting, semi-colons, etc.
perf: performance improvements
test: adding or fixing

Scope

The scope can be empty. Scope can be any of these:

category, part or section of the codebase we are affecting, e.g.: api, client, tooling
a specific package, library or dependency,e.g.: moment.js, requests
a ticket number in case the current commit doesn’t close it, e.g.: chore(123): update dependencies

Subject

Short (50 chars or less) summary of the change:

use the imperative, present tense: “change” not “changed”
don’t capitalize the first letter
no dot (.) at the end

Footer

The footer should contain a closing reference to an issue if any and breaking changes.

Closes #123, #345

BREAKING CHANGE:

IE6 not supported anymore.

Semantic versioning

Conventional commits are designed to work with Semantic versioning.

feat: minor version
fix: patch version
BREAKING CHANGE: major version

Examples

Add a new feature without breaking existing functionality. This bumps a minor version, e.g.: 1.2.0 to 1.3.0.

feat: add search for transactions

Add new React component for searching transactions with autocompletion.

Include tests.

Closes #123, #234

Fix a bug. This bumps a patch version, e.g.: 1.3.0 to 1.3.1.

bug(api): add correct status code for existing resources

We return `409` when trying to create a user with an existing email.

Closes #453

Add new feature that breaks existing functionality. This bumps a major version, e.g.: 1.3.1 to 2.0.0.

feat!: add bank sync 

This replace CSV import and use Plaid to connect to people's banks.

Closes #423, #424, #425

BREAKING CHANGE:

People won't be able to import transactions using CSV. Only Bank 
Sync is available.

Resources

Angular Commit Message Guidelines
Do new features, updates, design use feat: in semantic commit message convention? (Stack Overflow)
Karma commit message
A Note About Git Commit Messages (Tim Pope)
Semantic Commit Messages (Sparkbox)
How can I write good Conventional Commit-style commit messages for one feature over multiple commits? (Stack Exchange)
Conventional Commits