/git-conventions

name: git-conventions
description: Use when committing, squashing, merging, rebasing, or preparing changes for a pull request

Git Conventions

Commit Format

| Element | Rule | |---------|------| | Format | `type(scope): short description` | | Types | feat, fix, refactor, docs, test, chore, ci, perf, style, build | | Scope | Optional, reflects module/area changed | | Subject | Max 72 chars, lowercase start, imperative mood, no period, no emoji | | Body | Optional, blank line after subject, 72 char line wrap | | Footers | `BREAKING CHANGE:`, `Refs:`, `Closes:`, `Fixes:`, `Implements:`, `See:` |

Examples

feat(helmrelease): add Phase 3.3 services
fix(pg-non-prod): correct API key environment variable mappings
refactor: simplify context provider logic
chore(deps): update terraform to v1.6.0

Multi-Line Body (No Heredoc, No Temp File)

Repeat `-m` once per paragraph -- `git -C /abs commit -m "type: subject" -m "First paragraph." -m "Second paragraph."` -- no heredoc, no temp file. For exact wraps, use `git commit -m "$(cat <<'EOF' ... EOF)"` instead (`command-execution` Rule 7). Never attach a bare, unquoted heredoc directly to git (`git commit -F - <<EOF ... EOF`) -- measured, the classifier misreads a prose line as a command and blocks with a spurious T3 (`Verb: 'rm' (MUTATIVE)` on text that only *mentions* `rm -rf`).

Git Path Flags

Target the repo with `git -C /absolute/path <verb>` -- this is the canonical form in a subagent. The T3 consent gate parses `-C` as a flag and classifies the command identically to the bare verb (`git -C /repo push` is T3 `push`, same as `git push`); there is NO bypass of Gaia's gate. The full discipline -- why one byte-identical form prevents the approval loop, and why a separate `cd` call cannot work (the cwd resets between Bash calls) -- lives in `command-execution` Rule 7; follow it there.

Two narrow caveats:

• Prefer `-C /abs` (short flag) or `--git-dir=/abs` (equals form); both are

cleanly absorbed. Avoid the SPACE-separated `--git-dir /abs` / `--work-tree /abs` forms -- the path leaks into the first non-flag token and shifts the subcommand the local-safe guard reads (a mutative verb like `push` is still caught by the fallback scanner, but commit-message-leak protection is lost).

• The historical warning that a leading path flag "bypasses all rules silently"

described Claude Code's NATIVE settings.json prefix matching (`Bash(git commit:*)`), which Gaia used in 3.2.1 but no longer ships -- enforcement is now the PreToolUse hook, which is `-C`-robust. If a user adds their own `Bash(git ...:*)` allow rules, a leading path flag can still shift that prefix, but that affects only their auto-allow convenience, never Gaia's consent gate.

Push Defaults

Push to the feature branch. Only push directly to `main` when explicitly instructed or when the work is already on main. Force-push (`--force`) requires explicit user instruction.

Hook Enforcement

The `commit_validator.py` hook validates against standards inlined as module-level constants in that file (`TYPE_ALLOWED`, `SUBJECT_MAX_LENGTH`, `SUBJECT_RULES`, `BODY_MAX_LINE_LENGTH`) -- it covers the conventional-commits format, subject, and body rules. Forbidden-footer detection lives separately in `bash_validator` (hardcoded there). Format violations block the commit. Body line length triggers warnings only.

Pull Request Body

A PR is written retrospectively, after the commits already exist -- it explains the change to a reviewer who was not present while it was made, in English, self-contained, with no reference to the process that produced it (no task IDs, no plan/sprint labels, no "as requested"). The title reuses the same `type(scope): outcome` rule as the commit subject above -- no plan jargon there either.

| Section | Content | |---------|---------| | Context / Situation | The state that existed before this change and why it needed one | | What changed | The concrete change made, stated plainly | | Impact / what it solves | The outcome the change produces for the system or the user | | Plan impact | For IaC changes: the plan summary -- resources to add, change, destroy | | Verification | How the change was verified -- tests run, dry-run/plan output, manual check | | Risk / rollback (optional) | What could go wrong and how to revert, when the change carries real risk | | Links (optional) | Related PRs, issues, or docs -- only when they add context a reviewer needs |

This structure is advisory, not enforced: `commit_validator.py` validates only the commit message format above -- it does not parse or gate the PR body. Writing a body without this structure will not block anything; the structure exists so a reviewer gets the same shape every time.