commit-message

Write commit messages from evidence (the diff), not from recollection.

Procedure

1. Run git status --porcelain and git diff --cached --stat. If nothing is staged, ask whether to stage all tracked changes (git add -u) or specific paths. Never git add -A silently (untracked junk, secrets).
2. Read the staged diff: git diff --cached. If it exceeds ~400 lines, read --stat plus the hunks of the 5 largest files.
3. Classify the change: feat, fix, refactor, perf, docs, test, build, ci, chore. Pick ONE. If the diff mixes types, say so and offer to split into two commits.
4. Scope = the top-level directory or module most touched (auth, api, cli). Omit when the change is cross-cutting.
5. Subject: imperative, ≤ 50 chars, no trailing period. fix(auth): reject expired refresh tokens.
6. Body only when the why is not obvious from the diff: 1 to 3 lines, wrap at 72. Reference issues as Refs #123 / Closes #123 on their own line.
7. Show the message, then commit with a heredoc so newlines survive:

   git commit -m "$(cat <<'MSG'
   fix(auth): reject expired refresh tokens
   
   Tokens past `exp` were accepted because the check used `<` instead of `<=`.
   Closes #412
   MSG
   )"

8. Print git log -1 --stat as proof.

Rules

• Never describe changes that are not in the staged diff.
• Never include secrets, tokens, or internal URLs in the message.
• Do not add "Co-Authored-By" or tool attribution unless the repo's CONTRIBUTING or the user asks for it.
• If tests were not run, do not claim they pass in the message.

Verify

Maintainers: bash evals/run.sh /tmp/skillkeel-evals commit-message from the plugin root runs this case and grades it; records and transcripts sit in evals/commit-message/. evals/commit-message/: fixture repo with two new staged Python files; expected: feat subject ≤ 50 chars, imperative, describes only the staged files, no tool trailer, git log -1 --stat shown after the commit.