Start off by creating the template file in your project. If no value is returned, then you’re good to go. If you’re unsure whether you already use a Git template in your project, try running git config -get commit.template in your terminal.

Let’s look at how we can set this up and the benefits of using such a strategy. The one that’s particularly interesting for the scope of this article is commit.template ( * ).Ĭommit.template allows you to “ specify the pathname of a file to use as the template for new commit messages“, which basically means that you can save your Git commit message template as a file in a project and then configure Git to use it every time you git commit your changes. Git gives you a LOT of options out of the box to configure your Git environment. Let’s look at a few of them and analyze what problems they solve, how restrictive they are, and what advantages and disadvantages they come with.īTW, did you know there’s currently an ongoing effort by a few folks in the dev community to create a standardized specification for Git commit messages? What is a Git commit template? There are a couple of ways you can automate your commit workflow to better support your guidelines. If you want to make sure that what ends up in the repository is exactly how you want, then you might want to consider automation. This is not to say that people are ill-intentioned, but sometimes people forget or are unaware that such guidelines even exist. Whatever you decide, just remember that choosing a set of guidelines and announcing them to the world won’t guarantee that contributors will actually abide by them. Ultimately, it is up to you to decide if they work for your project or if you’d rather define your own set of rules. The developer community has plenty of great best practices in place when it comes to what makes a good Git commit message and what doesn’t. make you a more disciplined engineer and a more empathetic project maintainer.lower the entry level for new contributors by making the commit history consistent and easy to follow.help you spot commits that lack separation of concerns.make working with your commit history easier and more systematic(i.e., readability, search-ability, debugging, investigating issues, etc.).give context about the “what” and, most importantly, the “why” of your commits.A good Git commit message guideline will: These benefits are not just for yourself as a maintainer but for your entire team as well as your future team members. Good commit guidelines provide more benefits than might first come to mind. If you are new to Git, here’s a great Git tutorial to get you started. This article will discuss why proper Git commit messages are important, what kind of problems they solve, and how you can automate your client-side commit workflow to help contributors follow your guidelines. Good Git commit messages take practice and discipline to get used to, but once you’re in the habit of writing them, you will learn to appreciate the many benefits that come along with them. Good Git commit messages are like healthy eating habits: most people know they’re good for them, but few actually manage to follow through on a daily basis.