alt Hacker NewsOdd. The main reason to use this style of commit message is for CI/CD automation.
EDIT: I didn't see this covered in the article on my first pass. It is covered though. My apologies.
The type of the commit informs the automated workflows how to handle the commit. This is why it comes first.
For example, if you're performing CD, if you only commit a bunch of `fix: ` then only your semantic versioning patch version number is incremented. If you commit a `feat: ` then it's a minor version is bump. `feat! ` is a major version bump.
Even if you're not using CD for releases, semantic commit messages are sometimes used to automate change log generation. Granted, your change logs should not typically include the Git commit messages themselves — those are developer facing, not user facing.
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+1 I used this style to version bump, and wish the article gave suggestions on working alternatives.
Lately I use CalVer instead of SemVer, so it hasn't been an issue. I like the idea of smart auto-bump for versions.
Use some convention for git trailers then. Having “fix” or “feat” in the commit title does not provide any useful information to someone scanning the log.
No no. You see we need to get rid of conventional commits so AI can make commits easier.
The article addresses both of these pretty clearly. Semantic versioning gets borked with reverts and the automatic changelog is targeting the wrong audience