Komet
A Cocoa text editor designed for creating commit messages.
Purpose
A commit editor shouldn't be stuck in an obstructive save-and-close model. Applying and discarding a commit should be convenient, and you shouldn't think twice about it. The editor should also automate actions that make writing good messages possible.
After transitioning to Komet, I put less effort in creating higher quality messages.
Features
- Single action for applying or discarding a commit (
⌘ ↩><esc>:wq) - Double newline insertion after the first line.
- Cocoa's spell checking and automatic correction.
- Text highlight warning if line becomes too long for subject and/or body.
- Specialized text selection and font handling for message and comment sections.
- Intelligent discarding of commits (i.e,
exit(1)only if commit file has pre-existing content). - Ideal caret position on launch after the initial content.
- Several themes to choose from.
- Support for committing using the Touch Bar.
- Resume off from canceled commit messages.
The Options page elaborates on customizing some of these features.
Requirements
System Version:
1.2 onwards supports macOS 12.4 or later
1.1 is the last version to support macOS 10.14.4 or later
0.9.1 is the last version to support macOS 10.10 or later
Version Control:
Git, Mercurial (hg), Subversion (svn)
For optimal behavior, Komet depends on being able to distinguish the commit message content and the comment section at the end of the file. Thus, Komet has a small bit of code for handling each of its supported version control systems.
Contributing
Code
If you enjoy using Komet and think something could improve, feel free to make a contribution. Create an issue first before submitting a big change or browse the current issues. Please also read and follow the code of conduct in the repository first before contributing.
Pull requests will also need to pass Komet's set of automated UI tests. New features may require writing additional tests 🙂.
Localizations
Komet can be translated to other languages. To translate Komet go in the Xcode Project settings and add a new language in the Localizations section. After the localization files have been created, modify the string values in each one. Skip translating string values in xibs that are underscored like project_name. Finally, test the translation by changing your system language in System Preferences and by building and running Komet.
Other Platforms
Komet has inspired developers to make commit editors for other platforms. While I have not tried them out myself, you may want to check them out: