What is commit-messages-guide?

This repository is a written guide explaining what commit messages are, why they matter, and how to write them well. A commit message is the short note a developer attaches every time they save a change to a codebase using a version control tool like Git. Over time, these messages form a record of what changed and why. The guide starts with a plain-English explanation of what a commit actually is: a snapshot of all your files at a given moment, not just a list of differences. It then makes the case for why the wording of those messages matters: well-written messages help other people review code faster, help future developers understand why a decision was made, and make debugging easier months or years later. The bulk of the content is a set of practical writing rules. These include: write the subject line in the imperative form ("Add feature" rather than "Added feature"), capitalize the first word, keep the subject line under fifty characters, use the message body to explain the reasoning rather than restating what the code already shows, and avoid vague notes like "Fix stuff" or "Adjust CSS." The guide also covers consistency: picking one language and sticking to it across a whole project. A commit message template from a widely read Git book is included as a ready-to-copy starting point. The guide is available in eighteen languages, with translations linked from the top of the README. Contributions from the community are accepted through pull requests. The repository contains no software to run, only the written guide in multiple languages, making it a reference document rather than a tool.