---

name: commitlint
description: >-
Enforce conventional commit messages with commitlint. Use when a user asks to standardize commit messages, enforce commit conventions, set up commit linting in CI, or generate changelogs from commits.
license: Apache-2.0
compatibility: 'Any Git repository'
metadata:
author: terminal-skills
version: 1.0.0
category: development
tags:
- commitlint
- git
- conventional-commits
- ci
- changelog

commitlint

Overview

commitlint checks commit messages against conventional commit format (type(scope): description). Pairs with husky for Git hooks and standard-version/changesets for automated changelogs.

Instructions

Step 1: Setup

npm install -D @commitlint/cli @commitlint/config-conventional husky
npx husky init
echo 'npx --no -- commitlint --edit ""' > .husky/commit-msg

Step 2: Configure

// commitlint.config.js — Commit message rules
export default {
  extends: ['@commitlint/config-conventional'],
  rules: {
    'type-enum': [2, 'always', ['feat', 'fix', 'docs', 'style', 'refactor', 'perf', 'test', 'build', 'ci', 'chore']],
    'scope-case': [2, 'always', 'kebab-case'],
    'subject-max-length': [2, 'always', 72],
  },
}

Step 3: Valid Commits

git commit -m "feat(auth): add Google OAuth login"        # valid
git commit -m "fix(api): handle null response from /users" # valid
git commit -m "updated stuff"                              # rejected

Guidelines

• Conventional commits enable automated changelog generation and semantic versioning.
• Use with husky to enforce at commit time, not just in CI.
• Types: feat (minor bump), fix (patch bump), BREAKING CHANGE (major bump).