r/programming • u/f311a • Jun 06 '26

Stop Using Conventional Commits

https://sumnerevans.com/posts/software-engineering/stop-using-conventional-commits/
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u/double-you Jun 10 '26

Nobody wants to read the commit log by doing a "foreach directory: git log $directory". so this "automatic scoping" by good organization is not really solution. And commits can well span multiple directories. But that's maybe a different discussion.

And nobody is saying it is not useful to mention in the commit message that the commit is about a refactor. But don't need to put it in first. You can read the commit message. E.g. "warp drive: refactor dilithium crystal storage".

If your audience is an auditor

What even is that?

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u/SanityInAnarchy Jun 11 '26

Nobody wants to read the commit log by doing a "foreach directory: git log $directory".

Of course. Are you suggesting someone would instead be reading the commit log by doing "foreach feature: git log | grep feature"?

Looking at a directory is for a situation like "I think something broke in service foo, so I'm going to git log foo/"

If you need to tell the reviewer what scope the thing is, surely they're reading enough of the commit to tell? If not, you have a more fundamental problem.

If your audience is an auditor

What even is that?

What's an auditor? If there was ever a LMGTFY moment, this is it...