Git Commit Discipline

Commits serve as recovery checkpoints and explanations for future maintainers. This method grew from an incident in which a destructive reset erased a long session's uncommitted work. It does not authorize commits, publication, history rewrites, or hook bypasses by itself.

Scope and checkpoints

When commits are requested, commit at coherent verified checkpoints rather than accumulating unrelated work. When commits are not requested, keep the diff coherent and report completed work without making a commit.

Before committing, inspect status, the working and staged diffs, and recent history. Match repository message conventions; never stage unrelated work, secrets, or temporary reports.