MS Docs

Commit Message Guidelines

Goals

  • allow generating the change log by script
  • allow ignoring commits by git bisect (not important commits like formatting)
  • provide better information when browsing the history

Commit Message Format

Each commit message consists of a header, a body and a footer. The header has a special format that includes a type, a scope and a subject:

<type>[optional scope]: <Jira issue id> <subject>

[optional body]

[optional footer(s)]
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Any line of the commit message cannot be longer 100 characters! This allows the message to be easier to read on GitLab as well as in various git tools. We also mention a Jira issue ID in the commit message for automating work with GitLab in Jiraopen in new window.

Samples:

feat: MS-12 allow provided config object to extend other configs
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Type

Must be one of the following:

  • chore: Changes that affect the build system or external dependencies

  • ci: Changes to our CI configuration files and scripts

  • docs: Documentation only changes

  • feat: A new feature

  • fix: A bug fix

  • perf: A code change that improves performance

  • refactor: A code change that neither fixes a bug nor adds a feature

  • style: Changes that do not affect the meaning of the code (white-space, formatting, missing semi-colons, etc)

  • test: Adding missing tests or correcting existing tests

Scope

A scope may be provided to a commit’s type, to provide additional contextual information and is contained within parenthesis, e.g.

Samples:

feat(parser): add ability to parse arrays
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Subject

The subject contains a succinct description of the change:

  • use the imperative, present tense: "change" not "changed" nor "changes"
  • don't capitalize the first letter
  • no dot (.) at the end

Body

Just as in the subject, use the imperative, present tense: "change" not "changed" nor "changes". The body should include the motivation for the change and contrast this with previous behavior.

The footer should contain any information about Breaking Changes.

Breaking Changes should start with the word BREAKING CHANGE: with a space or two newlines. The rest of the commit message is then used for this.

A detailed explanation can be found in this documentopen in new window.