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wtf is conventional-commit-types?

patrickarlt/conventional-commit-types — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-07-15 · repo last pushed 2017-07-11

Audience · developerComplexity · 1/5DormantSetup · easy

TL;DR

A shared reference list that defines standard prefixes like 'feat' and 'fix' for Git commit messages, stored as a JSON file so other tools can read and enforce consistent commit formatting across teams.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What it does
      Defines commit types
      JSON data file
      Standardizes commit prefixes
    Use cases
      Enforce consistent commits
      Used with commitizen
      Validate commit messages
    Audience
      Developers in teams
      Open source maintainers
    Origins
      Angular conventions
      Widely adopted standard
    Tech stack
      JSON

Code map

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Why would anyone build with this?

REASON 1

Enforce consistent commit message formatting across a development team.

REASON 2

Use with commitizen to interactively guide developers through writing structured commit messages.

REASON 3

Validate commit messages against a standard list of accepted types before accepting them.

What's in the stack?

JSON

How it stacks up

patrickarlt/conventional-commit-types0verflowme/alarm-clock0xhassaan/nn-from-scratch
Stars0
LanguageCSSPython
Last pushed2017-07-112022-10-03
MaintenanceDormantDormant
Setup difficultyeasyeasymoderate
Complexity1/52/54/5
Audiencedevelopervibe coderdeveloper

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you spin it up?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min

It's just a single JSON data file consumed by other tools, so there's no real setup beyond installing a compatible commit tool.

The explanation does not mention a license, so the licensing terms are unknown.

Wtf does this do

conventional-commit-types is a small reference list that helps developers write better Git commit messages. Instead of everyone inventing their own style for describing changes, this project provides a shared vocabulary so commit messages follow a predictable format. When you write a commit message, you typically start with a short prefix that describes the kind of change. This project defines what those prefixes are and what each one means. For example, a commit might start with "feat" to indicate a new feature, "fix" for a bug fix, or "docs" for documentation changes. The list itself is stored as a simple JSON file, so other tools can read it programmatically. The main audience is developers who want to enforce consistent commit messages across a team. It's commonly used alongside tools like commitizen, which walks you through writing a commit message interactively, or validation scripts that check whether your commit message follows the rules before it's accepted. If you've ever seen a project where every commit message looks uniform and structured, a shared list like this is often the reason. The project itself is essentially a single data file. The conventions it codifies originally came from the Angular project's contributing guidelines, which became a widely adopted standard in the open source community. It's a small but meaningful piece of infrastructure that many commit-message tools rely on behind the scenes.

Yoink these prompts

Prompt 1
Set up commitizen in my project using the conventional-commit-types list so my team gets interactive prompts when writing commits.
Prompt 2
Create a git hook script that checks commit messages against conventional-commit-types and rejects messages that don't start with an approved type prefix.
Prompt 3
Build a simple changelog generator that reads my git log and groups commits by conventional-commit-types like feat, fix, and docs.
Prompt 4
Add conventional-commit-types as a dependency and configure a commit message validator that runs before each commit is accepted.

Frequently asked questions

wtf is conventional-commit-types?

A shared reference list that defines standard prefixes like 'feat' and 'fix' for Git commit messages, stored as a JSON file so other tools can read and enforce consistent commit formatting across teams.

Is conventional-commit-types actively maintained?

Dormant — no commits in 2+ years (last push 2017-07-11).

What license does conventional-commit-types use?

The explanation does not mention a license, so the licensing terms are unknown.

How hard is conventional-commit-types to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.

Who is conventional-commit-types for?

Mainly developer.

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