copilot-commit-validator

AI Commit Validator 🤖 (Optional - Nice to Have)

An optional AI-powered commit validator that acts as your intelligent code reviewer before commits. Uses GitHub Copilot and intelligent local analysis to analyze your staged changes and provide actionable feedback. Designed to be non-blocking - if AI validation fails, commits still proceed with appropriate warnings.

✨ Features

• 🤖 GitHub Copilot Integration: Uses GitHub Copilot API for world-class code analysis
• 🔍 Optional Pre-commit Validation: Reviews staged changes without blocking commits (NEW in v2.5.0)
• 🎨 Interactive CLI: Beautiful colored output with PowerShell compatibility
• 📂 Auto-Open Errors: Automatically opens files at error locations with cross-platform support
• 🔧 Side-by-Side Comparison: Visual code comparison showing original vs suggested improvements
• 🚀 Graceful Fallback: Continues with local analysis if AI services are unavailable
• 📊 Smart Skip Directives: Production-ready skip validation with [skip-ai] comments
• 💡 Non-Blocking Design: Always allows commits to proceed, even if AI validation fails

🚀 Installation

Global Installation

npm install -g ai-commit-validator

Local Installation

npm install ai-commit-validator

⚙️ Configuration

1. OpenAI API Key Setup

Create a .env file in your project root:

OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_api_key_here

Getting your OpenAI API Key:

• Visit OpenAI Platform
• Sign up or log in to your account
• Navigate to API Keys section
• Create a new secret key
• Copy and paste it into your .env file

Environment Variables

Variable	Required	Description	Default
GITHUB_TOKEN	🔧 Optional	GitHub Personal Access Token for Copilot API	-
AI_OPTIONAL_MODE	💡 Recommended	Make AI validation optional (nice to have)	true
AI_AUTO_OPEN_ERRORS	❌ No	Auto-open files at error locations	false
AI_DEFAULT_ON_CANCEL	❌ No	Default action on prompt timeout	auto-apply
AI_PROMPT_TIMEOUT_MS	❌ No	Timeout for interactive prompts (ms)	30000
AI_AUTO_SELECT	❌ No	Auto-respond in non-interactive mode	-
AI_FORCE_PROMPT	❌ No	Force prompts in non-TTY environments	false

🎯 Optional Mode (Recommended)

Set AI_OPTIONAL_MODE=true in your .env file to make AI validation optional:

# Make AI validation non-blocking (nice to have)
AI_OPTIONAL_MODE=true
GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_your_github_token_here

Benefits of Optional Mode:

• ✅ Never blocks commits - Always allows commits to proceed
• 🤖 Best effort AI review - Provides suggestions when available
• 🌐 Network resilient - Works offline or with connectivity issues
• ⚡ Fast commits - No waiting for AI when services are unavailable
• 🔧 Manual fallback - Shows clear guidance when AI review fails

🎯 Usage

Command Line Interface

# Validate staged changes
validate-commit

Git Hook Integration

Option 1: Pre-commit Hook (Recommended)

Create .git/hooks/pre-commit:

#!/bin/sh
# Run AI commit validator
npx validate-commit

Make it executable:

chmod +x .git/hooks/pre-commit

Option 2: Manual Validation

# Stage your changes
git add .

# Run validation
validate-commit

# If validation passes, commit
git commit -m "Your commit message"

Programmatic Usage

import { validateCommit } from 'ai-commit-validator';

// Run validation
await validateCommit();

🔄 Workflow

• Stage Changes: Add files to git staging area

  git add .
  

• AI Analysis: The validator automatically:

  • Analyzes your staged changes
  • Sends the diff to OpenAI for review
  • Receives intelligent feedback

• Interactive Decision: Based on AI feedback, you can:

  • ✅ Apply suggestions - Make recommended changes
  • ⚠️ Skip with justification - Bypass with required reason
  • ❌ Cancel commit - Stop the commit process

• Commit: If validation passes or is bypassed, proceed with commit

📝 Example Output

🔍 Checking your staged changes...
🧠 Sending code diff to AI for review...

🤖 AI Review Feedback:

I found a few areas for improvement:

1. **Security Issue**: The API key is hardcoded in line 15. Consider using environment variables.
2. **Performance**: The loop in `processData()` could be optimized using `map()` instead of `forEach()`.
3. **Error Handling**: Missing try-catch block around the database query on line 23.

What do you want to do?
❯ Apply suggestions and continue
  Skip validation with comment
  Cancel commit

🎨 Features in Detail

AI-Powered Analysis

• Code Quality: Identifies potential bugs, security issues, and performance problems
• Best Practices: Suggests improvements following coding standards
• Documentation: Recommends better comments and documentation
• Refactoring: Suggests cleaner, more maintainable code patterns

Interactive Experience

• Colored Output: Beautiful terminal interface with chalk.js
• Progress Indicators: Clear feedback during AI processing
• Smart Prompts: Contextual questions based on analysis results

Bypass Protection

• Justification Required: Must provide reason when skipping suggestions
• Audit Trail: Logs bypass reasons for team accountability
• Configurable: Can be customized for team requirements

🛠️ Advanced Configuration

Custom AI Model

Modify the model in index.js:

const response = await openai.chat.completions.create({
  model: "gpt-4", // Change to your preferred model
  messages: [{ role: "user", content: prompt }],
});

Custom Prompts

Customize the AI prompt for your team's needs:

const prompt = `
You are a senior code reviewer for our team.
Focus on: security, performance, and maintainability.
Use our team's coding standards: [link to standards]
...
`;

🔧 Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Error: No OpenAI API Key

Error: OpenAI API key not found

Solution: Ensure .env file exists with OPENAI_API_KEY=your_key

Error: No staged changes

⚠️ No staged changes found

Solution: Stage files first with git add .

Error: API Rate Limit

Error: Rate limit exceeded

Solution: Wait a moment and try again, or upgrade your OpenAI plan

Debug Mode

Add debug logging by modifying index.js:

console.log('Debug: Staged diff:', diff);
console.log('Debug: AI Response:', aiFeedback);

📊 Performance

• Average Analysis Time: 2-5 seconds
• API Cost: ~$0.001-0.01 per commit (depending on change size)
• Supported File Types: All text-based files (JS, TS, Python, etc.)

🤝 Contributing

• Fork the repository
• Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature
• Stage your changes: git add .
• Run the validator: validate-commit
• Commit your changes: git commit -m "Add amazing feature"
• Push to the branch: git push origin feature/amazing-feature
• Open a pull request

📋 Requirements

• Node.js: >= 16.0.0
• Git: Any recent version
• OpenAI API Key: Required for AI analysis
• Internet Connection: Required for API calls

🆕 v2.2.0 - Auto-Open Error Locations

The validator now automatically opens files at error locations with intelligent editor detection!

Features:

• 📂 Opens files directly in VS Code, Sublime Text, or Vim
• 🎯 Navigates to the exact error line
• 💡 Shows fix suggestions in the terminal
• ✅ Fully optional (disabled by default)

Quick Start:

export AI_AUTO_OPEN_ERRORS=true
git commit -m "Your commit message"
# Files with errors open automatically in your editor!

Documentation: See FEATURES_2.2.0.md and AUTO_OPEN_ERRORS.md for detailed information.

📜 License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

👨‍💻 Author

Sanjib Roy

🙏 Acknowledgments

• OpenAI for providing the GPT API
• The open-source community for the excellent libraries used
• GitHub Copilot for inspiration

🔗 Related Projects

• branch-commit-validator - Traditional pattern-based validation
• conventional-changelog - Commit message conventions

📈 Roadmap

• Support for multiple AI providers (Claude, Gemini)
• Team-specific rule customization
• Integration with popular IDEs
• Batch analysis for multiple commits
• Custom rule engine
• Performance metrics and analytics

Made with ❤️ by Sanjib Roy

Transform your commit process with AI-powered code review! 🚀