ABOUTME: Git conventional commit format and version control best practices

ABOUTME: Commit message standards, branch strategies, workflow patterns

Source Control

Quick Reference

git commit -m "feat: add user authentication"
git checkout -b feat/user-auth
git fetch origin && git rebase origin/main
git stash && git stash pop

Conventional Commits

Format: <type>(<scope>): <subject> (scope/body/footer optional)

| Type | Use | |------|-----| | feat | New feature | | fix | Bug fix | | docs | Documentation | | style | Formatting | | refactor | Code restructure | | perf | Performance | | test | Tests | | chore | Maintenance | | ci | CI/CD | | build | Build system | | revert | Revert commit |

Rules: Imperative mood, present tense, lowercase, no period, max 50 chars

# Good
git commit -m "feat(auth): add JWT validation"
git commit -m "fix: resolve race condition"

# Bad
git commit -m "Fixed stuff"      # Not conventional
git commit -m "Feat: Add thing"  # Capital letter

Commit Process

Check state:

git status && git diff HEAD && git branch --show-current && git log --oneline -5

Verify NOT on main/master (abort if so, unless authorized)
Stage specific files (never git add -A):
```
git add <specific-files>
```

Commit with conventional format:

git commit -m "<type>(<scope>): <subject>"

Branch Naming

| Type | Pattern | |------|---------| | Feature | feat/user-auth, feature/dashboard | | Fix | fix/login-bug, bugfix/api-error | | Hotfix | hotfix/security-patch | | Chore | chore/update-deps |

Workflow

# Start feature
git checkout main && git pull origin main
git checkout -b feat/user-auth

# Keep up to date
git fetch origin && git rebase origin/main

# After PR merged
git checkout main && git pull
git branch -d feat/user-auth

| Use | When | |-----|------| | Rebase | Keep feature branch current, clean linear history | | Merge | Integrate to main (via PR), preserve history |

Recovery

| Situation | Command | |---|---| | Undo last commit (keep changes) | git reset --soft HEAD~1 | | Undo staged files | git reset HEAD <file> | | Discard file changes | git checkout -- <file> | | Recover deleted branch | git reflog then git checkout -b <branch> <sha> | | Amend last commit | git commit --amend -m "new message" | | Revert pushed commit | git revert <sha> |

Conflicts

Resolve: git status to see conflicts, edit files to remove markers, git add <resolved>, then git rebase --continue (or git merge --continue). Use git rebase --abort to bail out.

Hooks

Pre-commit: .git/hooks/pre-commit -- run linters, formatters, tests per language.

Commit-msg: Validate conventional format (commitlint, husky, lefthook).

Best Practices

| DO | DON'T | |----|-------| | Conventional commits | Generic messages ("fix", "update") | | Small, logical commits | Huge unrelated changes | | Run tests before commit | Push broken code | | Use branches | Commit to main directly | | --force-with-lease | --force on shared branches |

Resources

https://www.conventionalcommits.org/
https://git-scm.com/doc
Tools: commitlint, husky, lefthook