[](https://github.com/Everduin94/better-commits) [](https://www.npmjs.com/package/better-commits) [](https://discord.gg/grHVnZwYup)

A CLI for writing better commits, following the conventional commits specification.

https://github.com/Everduin94/better-commits/assets/14320878/8fb15d46-17c4-4e5d-80d9-79abe0a2a00a

✨ Features

• Generate conventional commits through a series of prompts
• Highly configurable with sane defaults
• Infers ticket and commit-type from branch for consistent & fast commits
• Consistent branch creation with flexible workflow hooks via better-branch
• Interactive git status/add on commit
• Preview commit messages in color
• Support for git emojis per commit-type
• Configure globally or per repository
• Config validation and error messaging
• Lightweight (17kb)

As a side-effect of formatting messages

• Auto populate PR title / body
• Automate semantic releases
• Automate changelogs
• Automatically link & close related tickets / issues

📦 Installation

npm install -g better-commits

🚀 Usage

When you're ready to commit. To run the CLI in your terminal:

better-commits
# or
npx better-commits

It will prompt a series of questions. These prompts will build a commit message, which you can preview, before confirming the commit. Some of the values in these prompts will be infered by your branch name and auto populated. You can adjust this in your .better-commits.json configuration file.

To better understand these prompts and their intention, read Conventional Commits Summary

⚙️ Configuration

Global

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.

Repository

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
• Properties such as confirm_with_editor and overrides will prefer the global config

Options

Better-commits (& better-branch) are highly flexible with sane defaults. These options allow you specify whats best for your workflow.

[!NOTE]
All properties are optional and can be removed from the config. It will be replaced by the default at run-time.

• See .better-commits.json in this repository as an example

💫 Default JSON Config

[!NOTE]
Some properties allow a set of specifc string values

• See config file explanations for possible values

🔭 Config File Explanations

Expand to see explanations and possible values

🔎 Inference

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-NUMBER or NUMBER are 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

[!NOTE]
Using better-branch with better-commits can supercharge your git workflow. Make sure to try it out!

Better branch is a secondary feature that works with better commits

• Supports consistent branch naming conventions
• Uses same type-list/prompt from your config
• Enables better-commits to infer type & ticket
• Caches your username for speedy branching

To run the CLI in your terminal:

better-branch

Worktree Support

better-branch will prompt for Branch or Worktree. Creating a Worktree with better-branch is a great way to create worktrees while maintaining consistent branch naming conventions.

The worktree flow creates a folder/worktree with your branch description and a git branch inside with your full branch name.

[!NOTE]
Creating a worktree named everduin94/feat/TAC-123-add-worktrees with the native git command would create a nested folder for each /. better-branch removes the hassle by creating 1 folder while still using the full name for the branch.

Pre/Post Branch Checkout Hooks

Optionally configure pre and post checkout commands, for example:

• checkout and rebase main before branching
• run npm install before branching
• run npm run dev after branching

See _branch_precommands and _branch_postcommands in default config. (or _worktree_precommands and _worktree_postcommands for creating worktrees)

🌌 Mildly Interesting

Building / Versioning

better-commits works with Semantic Release

• See package.json and .github/workflows/publish.yml for example

Github

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

Changelogs

better-commits can append a commit trailer per commit type. This allows you to automate change logs with tools like Gitlab.

Fun Facts

better-commits uses native git commands under the hood. So any hooks, tools, or staging should work as if it was a normal commit.

Setting confirm_with_editor=true will allow you to edit/confirm a commit with your editor.

• For example, to edit with Neovim: git config --global core.editor "nvim"
• For VS Code, git config --global core.editor "code -n --wait"

[!NOTE]
Enjoy learning, open source technology, and note-taking? Join our Discord!

You can add this badge to your repository to display that you're using a better-commits repository config

Markdown	Result
[](https://github.com/Everduin94/better-commits)

🪟 Troubleshooting Windows

Git Bash

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.

Multi-line

If your are having issues with multilines for commits on windows, you can override the shell via your .better-commits.json config.

Example

"overrides": {
   "shell": "c:\\Program Files\\Git\\bin\\bash.exe"
}

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