Commit Message Conventions¶

All repositories in the THD-Spatial-AI and enerplanet organizations follow the Conventional Commits specification, originally adopted by the EU Commission component library.

Commit messages are automatically validated on every pull request. A PR cannot be merged until all commit messages pass the check.

Format¶

<type>(<scope>): <subject>

<body>

<footer>

Only the first line is required. Body and footer are optional.

Types¶

Type	When to use
`feat`	A new feature
`fix`	A bug fix
`docs`	Documentation changes only
`style`	Formatting or whitespace — no logic changes
`refactor`	Code restructuring without new features or bug fixes
`perf`	Performance improvements
`test`	Adding or updating tests
`chore`	Build process, tooling, or dependency updates

Rules¶

Use imperative mood — write add login endpoint, not added login endpoint
No capital letter at the start of the subject
No period at the end of the subject
Max 100 characters per line
Scope is optional but recommended — use it to indicate the affected area (e.g. api, auth, docs)

Examples¶

feat(api): add geospatial query endpoint
fix(auth): correct token expiry validation
docs: update installation instructions
chore(ci): upgrade actions/checkout to v4
refactor(parser): simplify coordinate transformation logic
test(export): add unit tests for GeoJSON output

Breaking changes¶

Add a BREAKING CHANGE: footer when a change is not backwards compatible:

feat(api): replace coordinate system

BREAKING CHANGE: all endpoints now return WGS84 instead of ETRS89

Common mistakes¶

Wrong	Correct
`updated readme`	`docs: update readme`
`Fix bug`	`fix: correct null pointer in parser`
`feat: Add new endpoint.`	`feat: add new endpoint`
`WIP`	`chore: scaffold route handler`

Fixing a failed commit lint check¶

When the Validate commit messages check fails on your PR, follow the steps below depending on how many commits need fixing.

Fix the most recent commit¶

git commit --amend -m "feat(scope): your corrected message"
git push --force-with-lease

Fix multiple commits¶

Use an interactive rebase to reword each failing commit. The workflow log tells you exactly which commit SHAs need fixing.

# Replace N with the number of commits in your PR
git rebase -i HEAD~N

In the editor that opens, change pick to reword for each commit you want to fix, save and close. Git will pause at each one so you can enter the corrected message. Then push:

git push --force-with-lease

Using AI to rewrite messages¶

If you are unsure how to rewrite a message, paste it into an AI assistant:

"My commit message update greeting message in main function failed the conventional commits check. The allowed types are: feat, fix, docs, style, refactor, perf, test, chore. Please rewrite it in the correct format type(scope): subject."

The AI will suggest something like feat(main): update greeting message.

Force push requires branch to be up to date

After --force-with-lease, the PR will automatically re-run the commit lint check. If someone else pushed to the branch in the meantime, the force push will be rejected — pull first with git pull --rebase and then push again.