Hey fellow programmers, I wanted to share a little experiment I’ve been
conducting lately that has significantly improved my workflow. I’ve started
using AI to generate my Git commit messages, and it’s been a game-changer! By
feeding all the changes I’ve made into a language model with a large context
window (LLM), the AI not only generates a concise commit title but also provides
bullet points describing each of the changes in precise detail. The level of
detail and informativeness it brings to my commit messages is incredible. I used
to spend a considerable amount of time crafting commit messages that accurately
captured the essence of the changes I made. Now, with the help of AI, I find
myself copy-pasting its generated messages most of the time. It’s not just a
time-saver; it also ensures that my commits are well-documented and easy to
understand for my team members. If you haven’t explored using AI for your Git
commits, I highly recommend giving it a try. It can significantly boost your
productivity and help you maintain clean and informative version control
history. Plus, it’s a fascinating intersection of AI and software development!
Have you experimented with similar AI-powered tools for your programming tasks?
I’d love to hear your experiences and any recommendations you might have. Let’s
discuss the future of AI in programming in the comments!
It writes more informative commits than I could ever make so I’m just reading what it says and mostly copy/pasting completely most of the time, I write all of the changes I’ve made into an LLM with a large context window and it write a very detailed commit not just with a title but with bullet points describing each of the changes precisely
Strong disagree. Commit messages that are only one sentence long should be reserved for truly trivial things.
Signed, someone who regularly comes back to 18+ year old commits and enjoys the valuable details that would have been lost.
Not having to swap over to a ticketing system just to see the context of a change is really nice (Or to add context on why changes are done a certain way). One line that says what you changed, then any context such as why it was done that way, and important notes about that change works wonders. It’s pretty much the exact model the Linux kernel uses, and it makes looking at changes great for anyone down the line.
If it’s faster to get an AI to write your commit messages than to write them yourself, your commit messages are too long. They should be one sentence.
And if one sentence isn’t enough, the commit has too many changes
Good old "various changes*
x
The worst commit history:
Strong disagree. Commit messages that are only one sentence long should be reserved for truly trivial things. Signed, someone who regularly comes back to 18+ year old commits and enjoys the valuable details that would have been lost.
How about prefixing your commit with a ticket number?
If a commit message has too much information, then the commit has too much changes
Not having to swap over to a ticketing system just to see the context of a change is really nice (Or to add context on why changes are done a certain way). One line that says what you changed, then any context such as why it was done that way, and important notes about that change works wonders. It’s pretty much the exact model the Linux kernel uses, and it makes looking at changes great for anyone down the line.