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arpxspace
smartcommit
Go2025–2025
arpxspace / smartcommit

smartcommit

Enforce the habit of self-documenting code through better commit messages.

4Distinct people
4Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
237GitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

Enforce the habit of self-documenting code through better commit messages.

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use has been verified yet.

What people are saying

No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 11:56:56 AM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by hour4 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2025-11-22 20:54:35 UTC to 2025-11-23 01:22:24 UTC.

012025-11-22 20:00:00 UTC to 2025-11-22 21:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 1 submissions, 0 commentsNov 22, 20:002025-11-22 21:00:00 UTC to 2025-11-22 22:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2025-11-22 22:00:00 UTC to 2025-11-22 23:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 commentsNov 22, 22:002025-11-22 23:00:00 UTC to 2025-11-23 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2025-11-23 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-11-23 01:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2025-11-23 01:00:00 UTC to 2025-11-23 02:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 commentsNov 23, 01:00

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
Nov 22, 20:002025-11-22 20:00:00 UTC2025-11-22 21:00:00 UTC110
Nov 22, 21:002025-11-22 21:00:00 UTC2025-11-22 22:00:00 UTC000
Nov 22, 22:002025-11-22 22:00:00 UTC2025-11-22 23:00:00 UTC101
Nov 22, 23:002025-11-22 23:00:00 UTC2025-11-23 00:00:00 UTC101
Nov 23, 00:002025-11-23 00:00:00 UTC2025-11-23 01:00:00 UTC000
Nov 23, 01:002025-11-23 01:00:00 UTC2025-11-23 02:00:00 UTC101

What Hacker News says

4 sources
For that matter, > The full path specification in `go build` was redundant given the context of how Go modules are structured. Simplifying the instructions improves clarity and reduces confusion for new users or contributors. The explanation doesn't seem quite right. The module mentioned in that command was moved to the project root, in such a way that the command no longer needs to specify a path. So the full path specification wasn't redundant; the updated version of it, became redundant. And all of this was done in a single commit. Better (disclaimer, I have no experience using Go. Actual Go developers probably don't even need to be told this much): Use github.com/arpxspace/smartcommit namespace `go.mod` is updated with an explicit package namespace, and import statements adjusted to match. and then: Rename main module `cm
Read the rest
d/smartcommit.go` is moved to `main.go`, and the README adjusted to match. (Using this name allows omitting the main module path from the build command.) and then: Simplify prose in README.md (No explanation required for the last one.) There's no need to justify that your changes are "in accordance with best practices", tell a story about "ongoing efforts" (unless you actually have other recent commits that you want to group together like that conceptually), etc. Commit messages are for other developers. Another developer who reads, in effect, "this change was made in the hopes that YOU will have an easier time contributing to the project"... is going to feel patronized. But making fine-grained commits with short messages will help in the long run. No amount of prose in commit messages can actually organize the commits. Meanwhile, the AI's summary completely ignored a change I would recommend splitting out into a separate (third) commit.
In Show HN: Build the habit of writing meaningful commit messages
https://github.com/arpxspace/smartcommit/commit/cc677f7bd210... This is just a complete braindead commit. Without looking at the code I could probably take 5 minutes to make sense of the commit message, being intrigued something interesting or important is happening. The message is massively over the top, it has way more text then actual code changes. It wastes time. I am not against AI as a helper in various places. But if possible it should be an opt-in tool if deemed useful. If someone wants to get a summary about a non trivial commit, that can be useful. Even better if the committer writes about the intentions and reasons for the commit, so an AI could match those with the actual code. Don't reiterate whats happening in a patch. Give the meta that isn't there or less obvious. Please.
In Show HN: Build the habit of writing meaningful commit messages

Show HN: Build the habit of writing meaningful commit messages

Too often I find myself being lazy with commit messages. But I don't want AI to write them for me... only i truly know why i wrote the code i did. So why don't i get AI to help me get that into words from my head? That's what i built: smartcommit asks you questions about your changes, then helps you articulate what you already know into a proper commit message. Captures the what, how, and why. Built this after repeatedly being confused 6 months in a project as to why i made the change i had made... Would love feedback!
110 points · Open discussion

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