engram-commit-hygiene

When to Use

Use this skill when:

• Creating commits
• Creating or naming branches
• Reviewing commit history in a PR
• Cleaning up staged changes

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Critical Rules

1. Commit messages MUST follow Conventional Commits — enforced by GitHub ruleset, rejected on push if invalid
2. Branch names MUST follow type/description format — enforced by GitHub ruleset, rejected on push if invalid
3. Keep one logical change per commit
4. Message should explain why, not only what
5. NEVER include Co-Authored-By trailers
6. NEVER commit paths prohibited by the Transient Artifact Policy

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Commit Message Format (enforced by GitHub ruleset)

Regex: ^(build|chore|ci|docs|feat|fix|perf|refactor|revert|style|test)(\([a-z0-9\._-]+\))?!?: .+

<type>(<optional-scope>): <description>
<type>(<optional-scope>)!: <description>   ← breaking change

Allowed Types

Type	Purpose
feat	New feature
fix	Bug fix
docs	Documentation only
refactor	Code refactoring (no behavior change)
chore	Maintenance, dependencies
style	Formatting, whitespace
perf	Performance improvement
test	Adding or fixing tests
build	Build system changes
ci	CI/CD pipeline changes
revert	Revert a previous commit

Rules

• Type MUST be lowercase, one of the listed values
• Scope is optional, lowercase, allows a-z, 0-9, ., _, -
• ! before : marks a breaking change
• Description MUST start after : (colon + space)
• Description should be imperative mood ("add", not "added" or "adds")

Valid Examples

feat(cli): add --json flag to session list command
fix(store): prevent duplicate observation insert on retry
docs(contributing): update workflow documentation
refactor(internal): extract search query sanitizer
chore(deps): bump github.com/charmbracelet/bubbletea to v0.26
style(tui): fix alignment in session detail view
perf(store): optimize FTS5 query for large datasets
test(sync): add coverage for conflict resolution
ci(workflows): split e2e into separate job
fix!: change session ID format

Invalid Examples (push will be rejected)

Fix bug                          ← no type prefix
feat: Add login                  ← description should be lowercase
FEAT(cli): add flag              ← type must be lowercase
feat (cli): add flag             ← no space before scope
feat(CLI): add flag              ← scope must be lowercase
update docs                      ← no conventional commit format

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Branch Naming Format (enforced by GitHub ruleset)

Regex: ^(feat|fix|chore|docs|style|refactor|perf|test|build|ci|revert)\/[a-z0-9._-]+$

<type>/<description>

Allowed Types

feat, fix, chore, docs, style, refactor, perf, test, build, ci, revert

Rules

• Type MUST be one of the listed values
• Description MUST be lowercase
• Only a-z, 0-9, ., _, - allowed in description
• No uppercase, no spaces, no special characters

Valid Examples

feat/json-export-command
fix/duplicate-observation-insert
docs/api-reference-update
refactor/extract-query-sanitizer
chore/bump-bubbletea-v0.26
ci/split-e2e-job

Invalid Examples (push will be rejected)

feature/add-login                ← "feature" not allowed, use "feat"
fix/Add-Login                    ← uppercase not allowed
my-branch                        ← no type prefix
fix_something                    ← missing "/" separator

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Pre-Commit Checklist

• Commit message matches conventional commits format
• Branch name matches type/description format
• Diff matches commit scope (no unrelated changes)
• No secrets, credentials, or .env files
• Every changed path complies with the Transient Artifact Policy
• No Co-Authored-By trailers
• Tests relevant to the change pass