laurigates/github-pr-title

GitHub PR Title

Craft clear PR titles using conventional commits format.

CRITICAL: PR titles must follow conventional commit format. This drives release-please version automation and ensures consistent git history when using squash-and-merge.

When to Use This Skill

| Use this skill when... | Use the alternative when... | |---|---| | Authoring a type(scope): subject PR title that drives release-please automation | Use git-pr for the full PR creation workflow (body, labels, reviewers) | | Renaming an existing PR title to fix release-please version-bump detection | Use git-commit-workflow to set the same conventions on commit messages | | Selecting the right feat, fix, perf, refactor, chore type for a PR | Use github-issue-writing for issue titles (different [Type] Component: format) | | Validating PR title format before merge to maintain clean git history | Use git-commit to fix already-committed message formats locally |

Format

<type>(<scope>): <subject>

See Conventional Commits Standards for comprehensive format guide.

Type Selection

| Type | Use Case | Version Bump | |------|----------|--------------| | feat | New feature | Minor | | fix | Bug fix | Patch | | perf | Performance improvement | Patch | | refactor | Code restructure (no behavior change) | None | | docs | Documentation only | None | | test | Tests | None | | build | Build/deps | None | | ci | CI config | None | | chore | Maintenance | None |

Decision tree: Feature → feat | Bug → fix | Performance → perf | Restructure → refactor | Docs → docs | Everything else → chore

Scope

Optional component identifier. Keeps commits organized:

feat(auth): add OAuth support
fix(api): handle null response
docs(readme): update install steps
refactor(core): simplify error handling

Discover repo scopes:

gh pr list --state merged -L 30 --json title | jq -r '.[].title' | grep -oE '\([^)]+\)' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn

Or from commits:

git log --format='%s' -n 50 | grep -oE '\([^)]+\)' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn

Subject

• Imperative mood: "add" not "adds" or "added"
• Lowercase: Start with lowercase after colon
• No period: Don't end with punctuation
• Under 50 chars: Keep concise

Examples:

| ❌ Bad | ✅ Good | |--------|---------| | Added login button | add login button | | Fixes the bug. | fix null pointer in auth | | Update | update dependencies | | Resolved Performance Issues | improve query performance |

Breaking Changes

Append ! before colon:

feat(api)!: remove deprecated endpoints
fix!: require Node.js 18+
refactor(db)!: change schema format

Breaking changes trigger major version bumps.

Reverts

revert: feat(auth): add OAuth support

Quick Reference

| Scenario | Template | |----------|----------| | Feature | feat(<scope>): add <what> | | Bug fix | fix(<scope>): resolve <what> | | Performance | perf(<scope>): optimize <what> | | Docs | docs(<scope>): update <what> | | Refactor | refactor(<scope>): simplify <what> | | Deps | build(deps): bump <pkg> to <ver> | | Breaking | feat(<scope>)!: change <what> |

Why This Matters

Conventional commit PR titles ensure:

1. Accurate automation - release-please reads PR titles to determine version bumps
2. Clean git history - squash-and-merge uses PR title as commit message
3. Searchable commits - type prefix makes filtering easy
4. CHANGELOG accuracy - commits are grouped by type in generated changelogs

Agentic Optimizations

| Context | Command | |---------|---------| | Get commits | git log origin/main..HEAD --format='%s' -n 10 | | Changed dirs | git diff origin/main..HEAD --name-only \| xargs dirname \| sort -u | | Update title | gh pr edit N --title "new title" | | Discover scopes | gh pr list --state merged -L 30 --json title \| jq -r '.[].title' \| grep -oE '\([^)]+\)' \| sort \| uniq |

Reference

For detailed rules, patterns, and troubleshooting, see Conventional Commits Standards.