commitkit

A small Go-native tool that checks whether your Git commit messages follow the rules you set.

commitkit turns a raw commit message into a structured model (type, scope, breaking marker, description, body, Git trailers) and validates it with a small rule engine. Conventional Commits is implemented as a policy, not hard-wired into the parser — so the same parser stays useful when a project uses a different convention.

Русская версия · Contributing

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Problems it solves

Problem	How commitkit helps
Commit messages drift across the team	One config (.commitkit.yml) or a shared policy in code
Tools hard-code Conventional Commits	Parser is convention-agnostic; CC is just the default policy
Diagnostics are vague	Source positions on every part of the message
Git trailers are messy	Proper handling of continuations, multiline values, BREAKING CHANGE
Hooks and CI need different tools	Same CLI for local commit-msg hooks and pipelines
Library users pull in a heavy framework	Thin public adapters (commit, lint, policy); core under internal/

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Quick start

Install

# Install
# Make sure `$(go env GOPATH)/bin` is on your `PATH`.
go install github.com/destyk/commitkit@latest

# or from a local clone
git clone https://github.com/destyk/commitkit.git
cd commitkit
make build

Prebuilt binaries

Download a release binary for your OS/arch from:

https://github.com/destyk/commitkit/releases

Unpack it, place commitkit on your PATH, and verify:

commitkit version

Usage

# Optional project config (walk-up from cwd). No file -> Conventional Commits defaults.
cat > .commitkit.yml <<'YAML'
types: [feat, fix, docs, chore]
description:
  min: 1
  max: 72
  lowercase: true
scope:
  required: false
YAML

# Check the latest commit
git log -1 --format=%B | commitkit check

# Or a file (e.g. during a hook)
commitkit check --file .git/COMMIT_EDITMSG

# Install a git commit-msg hook
commitkit install-hook

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Main commands

commitkit check [--file FILE] [--config FILE]
commitkit parse [--file FILE]
commitkit install-hook [--force] [--path DIR]
commitkit uninstall-hook [--force] [--path DIR]
commitkit version

Exit	Meaning
0	Success
1	Parse / policy / hook error
2	Usage / I/O / config error

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Configuration

.commitkit.yml is searched upward from the current directory. Use --config to pass an explicit path.

types:
  - feat
  - fix
  - docs
  - chore

description:
  min: 1
  max: 72
  lowercase: true

scope:
  required: false
  enum: [api, ui]

header:
  max_length: 100

rules:
  no_trailing_period: true
  breaking_change_footer: true

Omitted fields fall back to Conventional Commits defaults.

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Why this design

• Policy, not hard-coding — swap or compose rules without rewriting the parser.
• Precise diagnostics — positions on type, scope, description, trailers.
• CLI vs library — console output stays in the CLI; domain packages return structures.
• Small surface — import commit, lint, policy only; never internal/....

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Contributing / internals

Architecture, public adapters, how to add a rule, and library examples are in CONTRIBUTING.md.

Start there if you want to extend commitkit or embed it in your own tools.

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License

MIT