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Commits with Gitsmith

skillgendev asks every contributor for Conventional Commits: feat:, fix:, docs:, test:, refactor:, chore:, one small change per commit. Gitsmith is an open-source commit CLI from the same maintainer that makes this easy. It is optional: skillgendev does not depend on it, and any way of writing a correct message is fine.

What Gitsmith does​

Facts below are from Gitsmith's published README (version 0.2.1, MIT licence, Node.js 20 or newer).

  • It prompts you through your project's commit format, defined in one .commitconfig.json that it finds by walking up from the current folder.
  • It validates the config and reports clear errors.
  • It checks that you are in a git repository and have staged files.
  • It shows a preview of the message and asks for confirmation before it runs git commit.
  • Optionally, it suggests a message from a plain description of what you did, using a free NVIDIA AI API key. Only the text you type is sent; source code and diffs are not. Without a key, or with AI disabled, it falls back to the manual prompts.

Set it up for skillgendev​

npm install -g gitsmith
cd skillprinter
gitsmith init        # creates .commitconfig.json with a Conventional Commits default

Then edit .commitconfig.json so its types match the ones skillgendev uses. A config that fits this repository, with scopes named after its packages:

{
  "types": ["feat", "fix", "docs", "test", "refactor", "chore"],
  "askScope": true,
  "scopes": ["routes", "graph", "analyze", "compile", "generate", "probe", "export", "cli", "docs", "website"],
  "askTicket": false,
  "askBreaking": true,
  "format": "{type}({scope}): {message}",
  "headerMaxLength": 72
}

The format tokens are {type}, {scope}, {ticket}, {message} and {breaking} (! when the change is breaking). Scoped messages such as feat(analyze): … and refactor(probe): … already appear in the repository's history.

note

gitsmith init writes the config into the current folder. Whether to commit a .commitconfig.json to the repository is the maintainers' call; until then, keep yours local (for example, list it in .git/info/exclude).

Commit​

git add src/skillgen/routes/paths.py tests/test_paths.py
gitsmith

Gitsmith asks for the type, scope, message and whether the change is breaking, shows the final header, and commits on confirmation:

fix(routes): refuse Windows paths that Git Bash makes of /routes

With AI suggestions​

gitsmith key:set     # save an NVIDIA API key (free at build.nvidia.com)
gitsmith --ai        # describe what you did; pick or edit the suggestion
gitsmith --no-ai     # skip the AI prompt for this run

key:show, key:status and key:remove manage the saved key. In CI or scripts, set GITSMITH_AI_KEY instead; it overrides the saved key.

Why it fits skillgendev​

  • Clean history makes skillgendev check --since easier to use. Small, well-labelled commits make it clear which change made a skill stale, and which commit to compare against.
  • Same rule, less friction. The contribution rules ask for Conventional Commits and small commits; Gitsmith turns that into a prompt instead of a checklist.
  • Docs pull requests too. Changes to this site are commits like any other: use the docs type and the website scope.