gitmoji

Gitmoji

Generates commit messages that follow the gitmoji convention: every commit starts with an emoji that identifies the intent of the change at a glance. Given a diff, a list of staged files, or a plain description of a change, this skill picks the single most appropriate gitmoji and writes a concise, well-formed commit message around it.

This skill only generates the message — it never runs git commit or any other git command. The output is a copyable message for the user to use.

When to Use This Skill

• User says "write a gitmoji commit", "gitmoji this change", or "add an emoji to my commit message"
• User asks "which gitmoji should I use for this?"
• User pastes a git diff or describes a change in a project that uses gitmoji-style commit history
• User wants an expressive, scannable commit history using emojis

When not to use: if the project follows plain Conventional Commits (feat:, fix:, ...) without emojis, use the conventional-commit or commit-message-storyteller skill instead. If unsure which convention the project uses, ask the user to provide recent commit history (for example, the output of git log --oneline -10).

Message Format

The gitmoji specification:

<intention> [scope?][:?] <message>

• intention — exactly one gitmoji expressing the goal of the commit
• scope (optional) — the section of the codebase affected, in parentheses
• message — a brief imperative explanation of the change

Examples:

✨ add multi-tenant support to the billing service
? (auth) prevent token refresh loop on expired sessions
♻️ (api): extract pagination logic into shared helper

Emoji Style: Unicode vs Shortcode

Gitmoji supports two equivalent notations:

Style	Example	When to prefer
Unicode	✨ add dark mode	Default — renders everywhere, shorter subject line
Shortcode	:sparkles: add dark mode	Platforms that render shortcodes (GitHub, GitLab) or teams that grep commit logs by code

Match the repository's existing history. If recent commits use :sparkles:-style shortcodes, generate shortcodes; otherwise default to unicode emojis.

How It Works

Step 1: Understand the Change

Work from whatever the user provides:

1. A git diff — read it and identify what changed and why
2. A list of staged/modified files — infer intent from file names and paths
3. A plain description — use it directly

If the intent is genuinely ambiguous (e.g. "updated auth.js" could be a fix, a feature, or a refactor), ask one short clarifying question rather than guessing.

Step 2: Identify the Dominant Intent

Determine the primary purpose of the change. Common intents and their gitmojis:

Emoji	Shortcode	Intent
✨	:sparkles:	Introduce new features
?	:bug:	Fix a bug
?️	:ambulance:	Critical hotfix
?	:memo:	Add or update documentation
♻️	:recycle:	Refactor code (no behavior change)
✅	:white_check_mark:	Add, update, or pass tests
⚡️	:zap:	Improve performance
?	:art:	Improve structure / format of the code
?	:fire:	Remove code or files
?️	:lock:	Fix security or privacy issues
⬆️	:arrow_up:	Upgrade dependencies
?	:wrench:	Add or update configuration files
?	:lipstick:	Add or update the UI and style files
?	:boom:	Introduce breaking changes
?	:rotating_light:	Fix compiler / linter warnings
?	:globe_with_meridians:	Internationalization and localization

This is only the most common subset — always consult references/gitmoji-reference.md for the full official list of 75 gitmojis before settling on one; a more specific emoji often exists (e.g. ? for a trivial fix, ✏️ for a typo, ? for a file move).

Step 3: Pick Exactly One Emoji

Rules for ambiguous cases:

• Specific beats generic — a typo fix is ✏️, not ?; moving files is ?, not ♻️; a trivial non-critical fix is ?, not ?
• Tests: ✅ for adding/updating passing tests; ? only for intentionally failing tests (e.g. TDD red step)
• Fix vs hotfix: ?️ only for urgent production fixes; everyday bug fixes are ?
• Security fix: ?️ wins over ? when the bug is a security issue
• Formatting-only changes: ? for code structure/formatting; ? only for UI/style files (CSS, themes)
• One emoji per commit — never stack emojis; if two intents feel equally dominant, see mixed changes below

Step 4: Write the Message

• Imperative mood: "add", "fix", "remove" — not "added" or "fixes"
• Keep the subject line under 72 characters including the emoji
• Lowercase start, no trailing period
• Add a scope in parentheses when the project's history uses scopes
• Add a body (separated by a blank line) only when the why is not obvious from the subject

Step 5: Output

Produce the commit message in a copyable code block, followed by one line explaining why that gitmoji was chosen. Do not execute git commit.

Example output:

? (auth) prevent token refresh loop on expired sessions

Expired sessions triggered a refresh that failed validation and
re-triggered itself, crashing the app. A recursion guard now aborts
the cycle and returns a clean 401.

Why ?: the change corrects incorrect runtime behavior — a bug fix, not urgent enough for ?️.

Edge Cases

Situation	How to Handle
Mixed changes (e.g. feature + refactor in one diff)	Pick the emoji for the dominant intent, and suggest splitting into separate commits if the concerns are unrelated
Breaking change	Use ? as the intention and describe the break in the body
Revert	⏪️ with a subject referencing the reverted commit
Merge commit	? merge branch '<name>' into <target>
Initial commit	? begin project
Work in progress	? with a clear note of what remains
No matching emoji feels right	Re-scan the full reference; if still nothing fits, fall back to the closest generic intent (✨, ?, or ♻️)

Quick Reference

# Get your staged diff to paste into Copilot
git diff --staged

# Check which emoji style the repo already uses
git log --oneline -10

See references/gitmoji-reference.md for the complete official gitmoji list.