How I write Git commit messages

Crafting Better Git Commit Messages with AI 🚀

Hey fellow developers! Today, I want to share something that’s been a game-changer in my daily workflow - how I craft meaningful Git commit messages using AI, without relying on GitHub Copilot.

Quick Method in Cursor

Listen! 🎯 While writing this post, I stumbled upon this quick way to generate commit messages:

  1. Open Cursor’s Source Control panel (look for the branch/Y-shaped icon in the sidebar)
  2. Find the commit message input field
  3. Click the AI-generated commit message button (it looks like a star ⭐)

My Personal Method: Using Cursor Chat

But here’s how I personally prefer to do it:

  1. 📝 Open Cursor’s Chat
  2. 🔍 Ensure no file is in the context
  3. ⚡️ Type @PR and hit Enter (this adds @PR (Diff with Main Branch) to the context)
  4. 💬 Use this magic prompt:
    You are an engineer who wants to commit changes to the remote codebase. Your job is it to provide a short commit message about the recent changes as a one-liner.
  5. ✨ Hit Enter and voilà - perfect commit messages every time!

Now that I think about it, I could probably create a Cursor extension to automate this whole process with a single keystroke. Maybe that’ll be my next project!

And that’s it! While both methods use AI to generate commit messages, there’s an interesting difference: my personal method always creates a concise one-liner, while the quick method might generate multi-line messages.

Listen! 💡 I personally prefer the one-liner approach as it keeps my git history clean and scannable. But now you know both methods - try them out and see which style works better for your workflow!

~Sven