Contextual commits – An open standard for capturing the why in Git history

2 days ago

The author discusses the challenge of making coding agents understand project context and conventions without manual input.
Initial attempts to provide context via extensive prompts were effective but not scalable.
Various methods were tried to capture context, including rules, artifacts, and skills, but maintaining context capture was inconsistent.
Automation attempts, like using Git hooks, degraded the quality of captured context.
The realization that commit bodies in Git are underutilized for capturing the 'why' behind changes led to the creation of Contextual Commits.
Contextual Commits extend Conventional Commits by adding structured action lines in the commit body to document intent, decisions, constraints, and learnings.
A utility skill named 'recall' was developed to search through contextual commit history, enhancing workflow without significant changes.
The solution addresses context decay, merge conflicts, and discipline dependency by leveraging Git's existing infrastructure.
Contextual Commits are proposed as an open standard, with a reference implementation available for easy installation.
The approach is scalable, privacy-conscious, and avoids vendor lock-in, fitting seamlessly into existing Git workflows.

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