Commit messages

Commit Messages¶

For a clean git history, clear version history, and clarifying your PRs for reviewers, use the following structure:

[MODULE] (Action): Message

Modules¶

MODULE identifies the primary area of the codebase that changed:

Module	Area	Description
`INFRA`	-	The project as a whole. Structural changes, workspace and CI configuration
`API`	Backend	Backend routes and handlers
`DB`	Backend	Database models and migrations
`AUTH`	Backend	Authentication and authorization
`APP`	Frontend	The mobile app
`ADMIN`	Frontend	The admin web panel

If a commit touches multiple modules, list them ordered from most significant to least significant change:

[MODULE1-MODULE2-...] (Action): Message

Actions¶

Action describes the type of change:

Action	When to use
`Update`	New features, new functionality, or new additions
`Refactor`	Same behaviour, different implementation
`Bug`	A fix or partial fix for a known bug
`Docs`	Documentation-only changes (not treated as code changes)

Message¶

Write the message in imperative form, as if you are commanding the codebase what to do. Think: "If applied, this commit will ___."

Good: Add retry logic for failed requests
Bad: Added retry logic / Adds retry logic / Retry logic
Really Bad: Fix / Fixed some stuff / Claude

AI-assisted commits¶

If any part of a commit was written with the help of an AI tool (Copilot, Claude, etc.), add a Co-Authored-By trailer to the commit body so that reviewers know to apply extra scrutiny:

[API] (Update): Add date range filter to activity endpoint

Co-Authored-By: GitHub Copilot <copilot@github.com>

The trailer goes in the commit body, separated from the subject line by a blank line. Reviewers treat AI-assisted commits as needing a closer read; AI tools can produce plausible-looking code that is subtly incorrect.

Examples¶

[DB] (Bug): Handle None value when deserializing optional ticket fields
[API-DB] (Refactor): Extract shared error types into common module
[INFRA] (Docs): Update README with local development instructions
[AUTH] (Bug): Fix off-by-one error in session token expiry check
[APP] (Update): Add ticket transfer flow to ticket detail screen
[ADMIN] (Refactor): Replace manual date picker with shared date component