Commit Vault Changes

Stage and commit changes to the vault with properly formatted UK English conventional commit messages.

Usage

/commit                    # Auto-detect changes and commit
/commit -m "message"       # Commit with a specific message
/commit --amend            # Amend the previous commit (use sparingly)

Workflow

1. Review Changes

git status
git diff --stat

2. Stage Changes

Stage specific files rather than using git add -A:

• Never stage: .env, credentials, .secrets.baseline (unless updated by detect-secrets)
• Use git add -u for modified/deleted files with Unicode filenames (avoids octal encoding issues)
• Use git lfs track first for large binary files (PPTX, PDF >100MB)

3. Compose Commit Message

Follow these conventions:

• UK English spelling (e.g., "organise", "summarise", "colour")
• Imperative mood in subject line (e.g., "Add meeting note" not "Added meeting note")
• Subject line under 72 characters
• Body explains the "why" not the "what" (the diff shows the what)
• Always include the co-author tag

4. Commit Format

<type>: <subject>

<optional body>

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <[email protected]>

Types:

5. Pre-commit Checks

The vault has pre-commit hooks that may:

• Run detect-secrets (may need .secrets.baseline update)
• Check for large files (use git LFS for >100MB)
• Fix trailing whitespace and EOF

If the hook modifies files, re-stage with git add -u then commit again.

6. Post-commit

Run git status to verify the commit succeeded and working tree is clean.

Important

• Never force push to main without explicit user confirmation
• Never use --no-verify unless the user explicitly requests it
• If git commit fails with PermissionError on ~/.cache/pre-commit/, use dangerouslyDisableSandbox: true