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Commit convention

We use Conventional Commits to standardize our commit messages.

Commit message format​

A commit message consists of a type, a scope and a subject:

<type>(<scope>): <subject>

Type​

The type can be one of these types:

  • feat: A new feature
  • fix: A bug fix
  • build: Build related changes (eg: gradle related/ adding external dependencies)
  • chore: A code change that external user won't see (eg: change to .gitignore file or .prettierrc file)
  • docs: Documentation related changes
  • refactor: A code change that rename a parts of code like variable name or function name can also be used when updating dependencies to a newer major version
  • perf: A code that improves performance
  • style: A code that is related to styling
  • test: Adding new test or making changes to existing test

Scope​

The scope is optional and can be used to indicate which part of the codebase the commit is related to. For example, if the commit is related to a Paper api, the scope can be api-paper.

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

Breaking change​

If the commit has a breaking change, it should append a ! after the type/scope.

If the breaking change is affects large amounts of code, it should also append a BREAKING CHANGE: in the body or footer.

A breaking change can be part of commits of any type.

Body​

The body is optional and can be used to provide a more detailed description of the change. It should include the motivation for the change and contrast this with previous behavior.

The footer is optional and is used to reference issue tracker IDs.

Examples​

Commit message with description and breaking change in body​

feat: allow provided config object to extend other configs

BREAKING CHANGE: `extends` key in config file is now used for extending other config files

Commit message with a body and a footer​

fix: correct minor typos in code

see the issue for details on the typos fixed

closes issue #12