
git-add-then-commit
A minimalist CLI tool to automate the ↯ git add X ↯ git commit -m 'Y(Z): W'
↯ workflow and help you compose atomic consistent conventional
commits quickly and easily.
Install
npm install --global git-add-then-commit
Usage
gac [path1, path2, ...] commit-type commit-scope commit-message
You can use --help to get help text output, --version to get the current
version, and --silent to prevent all output.
For a repository using conventional commits, your commit flow might go
something like this:
git add path/to/file2
git commit -m 'feat(file2): add new killer feature'
Where the commit message has:
- Type: feat
- Scope: file2
- Subject (or message): add new killer feature
With git-add-then-commit (gac), this can be simplified to:
git add path/to/file2
gac feat file2 'add new killer feature'
And further simplified to:
gac path/to/file2 feat file2 'add new killer feature'
And even further (using a scope option):
gac path/to/file2 feat -- 'add new killer feature'
And further still:
gac path feat -- 'add new killer feature'
Scope Options
-- as used in the example above is a scope option, which can be used in
place of commit-scope.
To maintain scope consistency in generated changelogs with minimal effort,
favor the --scope-root and --scope-omit scope options.
Basename
-- (or: --scope-basename) will generate a commit message using the
lowercased basename of 1) the first path passed to gac or 2) the first
staged path returned by git status. The basename is always lowercased.
If more than one file is staged and no paths are passed to gac, using
--scope-basename will cause an ambiguity error.
Omit
- (or: --scope-omit) will generate a commit message with no scope.
Example
Given the following filesystem structure:
.
└── src
└── index.ts <MODIFIED>
The following are equivalent:
gac src feat - 'add new killer feature'
git add src/index.ts
git commit -m 'feat: add new killer feature'
As-is
-a (or: --scope-as-is) will generate a commit message using the first path
passed to gac exactly as typed.
If no paths are passed to gac, using --scope-as-is will cause an ambiguity
error.
Example
Given the following filesystem structure:
.
└── src
├── iNdex.ts <MODIFIED>
├── cli.ts <MODIFIED>
├── errors.ts <MODIFIED>
└── git.ts <MODIFIED>
The following are equivalent:
gac src/iNdex.ts src feat --scope-as-is 'add new killer feature'
git add src/iNdex.ts
git add src/cli.ts
git add src/errors.ts
git add src/git.ts
git commit -m 'feat(src/iNdex.ts): add new killer feature'
Full
-f (or: --scope-full) will generate a commit message using the "full" or
absolute path (relative to the repository root) of the first path passed to
gac.
If no path arguments are passed, --scope-full will use the full path—including
filename and extension—if there is exactly one path or staged file, the deepest
common ancestor of all paths/files if there is more than one (or the first path
is ambiguous), or fail with an ambiguity error if there is no relative common
ancestor.
Regardless, the final commit-scope is always lowercased.
Example
Given the following filesystem structure:
.
├── public
│ └── images
│ ├── favicon.ico <MODIFIED>
│ ├── hero.png
│ └── villain.png
├── src
│ ├── index.ts <MODIFIED>
│ └── interface
│ ├── cli.ts <MODIFIED>
│ └── git.ts
└── test
├── units.ts
└── fixtures
├── dummy-1.ts <MODIFIED>
└── dummy-2.ts <MODIFIED>
The following are equivalent:
gac src feat --scope-full 'add new killer feature'
git add src/index.ts
git add src/interface/cli.ts
git commit -m 'feat(src): add new killer feature'
gac test refactor --scope-full 'update tests for new feature'
git add test/fixtures/dummy-1.ts
git add test/fixtures/dummy-2.ts
git commit -m 'refactor(test/fixtures): update tests for new feature'
gac public style --scope-full 'new favicon'
git add public
git commit -m 'style(public/images/favicon.ico): new favicon'
Root
--- (or: --scope-root) will generate a commit message with a more
"photogenic" scope. That is, commit messages derived using this option tend to
look nicer in generated changelogs. Specifically:
- A small, consistently derived set of scopes are used across the lifetime of
the repository.
- Derived scopes are analogous to filesystem structure.
- Derived scopes tend to be short, sweet, and mostly alphanumeric.
Like --scope-full, --scope-root will derive commit-scope by selecting
from any path arguments and staged file paths available. Unlike
--scope-full, only the first directory (left-to-right) in the selected
path—rather than the deepest common ancestor—is used to derive commit-scope.
For example, path in path/to/some/file is the first directory.
If no path arguments are passed and there is exactly one staged file,
--scope-root will select the first directory from that file's path. If there
is more than one staged file (or the first path is ambiguous) and their paths
share the same first directory, said directory is selected; if there is no
common first directory, the operation fails with an ambiguity error.
An ambiguity error using --scope-root is usually a hint to construct a more
fine-grain commit.
If the selected path has no first directory, i.e. it points to a file at the
root of the repository, the filename is used as commit-scope instead with its
file extension removed (see package.json in the examples below).
On the other hand, if the selected path has a first directory matching
commit-type (see test in the examples below):
- If there is a second directory in the selected path, the second directory is
used to derive the
commit-scope instead.
For example, to in path/to/some/file is the second directory.
-
If there is no second directory, the filename (sans extension) is used to
derive the commit-scope only if the file is not named "index".
-
If there is no second directory and the file is named "index" (sans
extension), commit-scope is omitted.
At the end of the process, if it has not already been omitted, commit-scope is
lowercased and split on "." with the first element used as the final
commit-scope. Finally, if commit-scope matches commit-type, commit-scope
is omitted.
Example
Given the following filesystem structure:
.
├── CHANGELOG.md <MODIFIED>
├── CONTRIBUTING.md
├── docs
│ ├── supplementary.md <MODIFIED>
│ └── README.md <MODIFIED>
├── external-scripts
│ └── my-script.ts <MODIFIED>
├── index.ts <MODIFIED>
├── lib
│ ├── api
│ │ └── adapter.ts <MODIFIED>
│ ├── index.ts <MODIFIED>
│ ├── cli.ts <MODIFIED>
│ └── git.ts
├── package-lock.json <MODIFIED>
├── package.json <MODIFIED>
├── README.md
└── test
├── index.ts <MODIFIED>
├── integrations
│ ├── browser-tests.ts
│ ├── e2e-tests.ts <MODIFIED>
│ └── index.ts <MODIFIED>
└── units.ts <MODIFIED>
The following are equivalent:
gac lib/index.ts fix --- 'fix bug that caused crash'
git add lib/index.ts
git commit -m 'fix(lib): fix bug that caused crash'
gac lib/api refactor --- 'use updated mongodb native driver'
git add lib/api/adapter.ts
git commit -m 'refactor(lib): use updated mongodb native driver'
gac package.json package-lock.json chore --- 'update dependencies'
git add package.json
git add package-lock.json
git commit -m 'chore(package): update dependencies'
git add docs
gac docs --- 'add sections on new killer feature'
git add docs
git commit -m 'docs: add sections on new killer feature'
gac test/integrations/index.ts test --- 'update integration tests'
git add test/integrations/index.ts
git commit -m 'test(integrations): update integration tests'
gac test/integrations style --- 'use emojis in all TODO comments'
git add test/integrations/e2e-tests.ts
git commit -m 'style(test): use emojis in all TODO comments'
gac test/index.ts test --- 'update tooling to use latest features'
git add test/index.ts
git commit -m 'test: update tooling to use latest features'
gac test test --- 'add unit tests for new killer feature'
git add test/units.ts
git commit -m 'test(units): add unit tests for new killer feature'
gac index.ts lib/cli.ts feat --- 'add new killer feature'
git add index.ts
git add lib/cli.ts
git commit -m 'feat(index): add new killer feature'
gac CHANGELOG.md docs --- 'regenerate'
git add CHANGELOG.md
git commit -m 'docs(changelog): regenerate'
gac external-scripts/my-script.ts build --- 'update my-script functionality'
git add external-scripts/my-script.ts
git commit -m 'build(externals/my-script): update my-script functionality'
Monorepo Pseudo-Pathspecs
Given the following filesystem structure:
.
├── CHANGELOG.md
├── CONTRIBUTING.md
├── package-lock.json
├── package.json
├── packages
│ ├── pkg-1
│ │ └── specific
│ │ └── script.ts <MODIFIED>
│ └── pkg-2
│ └── src
│ └── index.ts <MODIFIED>
└── README.md
The following are equivalent (:: is a so-called "pseudo-pathspec"):
gac ::pkg-2 style --- 'cosmetic changes'
git add packages/pkg-2/src/index.ts
git commit -m 'style(packages/pkg-2): cosmetic changes'
gac ::pkg-1/specific/script.ts feat --- 'added something specific to a script'
git add packages/pkg-1/specific/script.ts
git commit -m 'feat(packages/pkg-1): added something specific to a script'
cd packages/pkg-2
gac ::pkg-1 feat --- 'added something specific to a script'
git add ../../packages/pkg-1/specific/script.ts
git commit -m 'feat(packages/pkg-1): added something specific to a script'
Other Features
-
Use --help for more usage information, including listing all aliases.
-
Use --no-verify to perform an unverified commit.
-
Use --verify=simple to set GAC_VERIFY_SIMPLE=true in the runtime
environment, which can be used to skip certain tests based on the presence of
the variable.
-
If commit-message describes a breaking change, an exclamation point is
prepended to the colon in the final commit message.
-
gac works with both currently staged files and any paths passed as arguments
with the latter having precedence. This makes it easy to, for instance, stage
files with vscode or git add -p then use gac to quickly
compose an atomic conventional commit.
Importing as a Module
This package can be imported and run directly in source without spawning a child
process or calling a CLI. This is useful for, for instance, composing multiple
yargs-based CLI tools together.
import { configureProgram } from 'git-add-then-commit';
const { program, parse } = configureProgram();
await parse(['path', 'type', '--no-scope', 'commit message here']);
Documentation
Further documentation can be found under docs/.
This is a dual CJS2/ES module package. That means this package
exposes both CJS2 and ESM (treeshakable and non-treeshakable) entry points.
Loading this package via require(...) will cause Node and some bundlers to use
the CJS2 bundle entry point. This can reduce the efficacy of tree
shaking. Alternatively, loading this package via
import { ... } from ... or import(...) will cause Node (and other JS
runtimes) to use the non-treeshakable ESM entry point in versions that support
it. Modern bundlers like Webpack and Rollup will use the
treeshakable ESM entry point. Hence, using the import syntax is the modern,
preferred choice.
For backwards compatibility with Node versions < 14,
package.json retains the main key, which
points to the CJS2 entry point explicitly (using the .js file extension). For
Node versions > 14, package.json includes the more modern
exports key. For bundlers, package.json
includes the bundler-specific module key (eventually superseded
by exports['.'].module), which points to ESM source
loosely compiled specifically to support tree shaking.
Though package.json includes
{ "type": "commonjs"}, note that the ESM entry points are ES
module (.mjs) files. package.json also includes the
sideEffects key, which is false for optimal tree
shaking, and the types key, which points to a TypeScript
declarations file.
Additionally, this package does not maintain shared state and so does not
exhibit the dual package hazard.
License

Contributing and Support
New issues and pull requests are always
welcome and greatly appreciated! 🤩 Just as well, you can star 🌟 this
project to let me know you found it useful! ✊🏿 Thank you!
See CONTRIBUTING.md and SUPPORT.md for more
information.