From Dots to Meaningful Commits

For years, I was guilty of being that programmer who’d lazily type “.” or “..” as commit messages. We’ve probably all been there (one way or another) after hours of coding, the last thing you want to think about is crafting a meaningful commit message. But this habit was making my git history practically useless, and I knew I had to change. This is old thought and it is as old as my usage of git itself.

I have read before hints about conventional commits but never give it too much. But recently decided that’s this is the time to do it. I created a simple bash script to make the process painless for me. Now, instead of meaningless dots, my commits tell a story - each one clearly indicating whether I’m adding a feature, fixing a bug, or updating documentation. The script lives in my ~/.local/bin, and with a simple ‘commit_msg’ command, it guides me through creating proper commit messages, handling all the formatting and even adding my signature automatically.

What started as a small effort to improve my git habits has transformed into a better development workflow. You can find my script here if you’re interested in giving it a try. After all, our commit messages are like notes to our future selves - might as well make them meaningful. If I get back to the dots again, this I would be guilty as charged.