Commit work

Goal

Make commits that are easy to review and safe to ship:

• only intended changes are included
• commits are logically scoped (split when needed)
• commit messages describe what changed and why

Inputs to ask for (if missing)

• Single commit or multiple commits? (If unsure: default to multiple small commits when there are unrelated changes.)
• Commit style: Conventional Commits are required.
• Any rules: max subject length, required scopes.

Workflow (checklist)

1) Inspect the working tree before staging

- git status

- git diff (unstaged)

- If many changes: git diff --stat

2) Decide commit boundaries (split if needed)

- Split by: feature vs refactor, backend vs frontend, formatting vs logic, tests vs prod code, dependency bumps vs behavior changes.

- If changes are mixed in one file, plan to use patch staging.

3) Stage only what belongs in the next commit

- Prefer patch staging for mixed changes: git add -p

- To unstage a hunk/file: git restore --staged -p or git restore --staged <path>

4) Review what will actually be committed

- git diff --cached

- Sanity checks:

- no secrets or tokens

- no accidental debug logging

- no unrelated formatting churn

5) Describe the staged change in 1-2 sentences (before writing the message)

- "What changed?" + "Why?"

- If you cannot describe it cleanly, the commit is probably too big or mixed; go back to step 2.

6) Write the commit message

- Use Conventional Commits (required):

- type(scope): short summary

- blank line

- body (what/why, not implementation diary)

- footer (BREAKING CHANGE) if needed

- Prefer an editor for multi-line messages: git commit -v

- Use references/commit-message-template.md if helpful.

7) Run the smallest relevant verification

- Run the repo's fastest meaningful check (unit tests, lint, or build) before moving on.

8) Repeat for the next commit until the working tree is clean

Deliverable

Provide:

• the final commit message(s)
• a short summary per commit (what/why)
• the commands used to stage/review (at minimum: git diff --cached, plus any tests run)