Commits

Commit messages

We do not have any strict conventions or formats (e.g. Conventional Commits) for commit messages.

The ideas behind atomic Git commits outlined in the following blog post are good to keep in mind: https://www.aleksandrhovhannisyan.com/blog/atomic-git-commits/

In particular, if a sizable change caused by linting/formatting tools takes place, it is recommended to separate this into a separate commit. Doing so will greatly improve the PR review process and create a cleaner versioning history.

Co-authored commits

If you would like to credit a co-author, e.g. during a pair programming session, or because someone helped you out, you can use the Co-authored-by trailer in commit messages.

git commit -m "eager load offers to prevent n+1 queries

Co-authored-by: Jane Doe <jane@example.com>"

Anonymous commits

In some cases, it may be beneficial to perform a commit anonymously to not associate changes with a particular author.

e.g. if a code quality tool is run over the entire codebase.

This is of questionable importance and up to personal preference. It helps when tracking down who wrote/maintained a particular section of code to not have the filter commit authors that did not make substantial changes to that section of code.

To do this, you can use the --author flag, providing the name "Anonymous" and a blank email address:

git commit --author="Anonymous <>" -m "run php-cs-fixer"

You can also amend the last commit to update the author depending on your workflow, e.g. if you use a GUI to commit, and it is not straightforward to change the author while committing:

git commit --amend --author="Anonymous <>"