Guide: Use prompt

WARNING

Prompt is currently unmaintained
Some things might not work as expected

@commitlint/prompt-cli helps with fast authoring of commit messages and ensures they adhere to the commit convention configured in commitlint.config.js.

Install

1. Create a git repository if needed

   git init

2. Create a package.json if needed

   npm

   npm init

   yarn

   yarn init

   pnpm

   pnpm init

   bun

   bun init

3. Install and configure if needed

   npm

   npm install --save-dev @commitlint/cli @commitlint/config-conventional @commitlint/prompt-cli
   
   echo "export default { extends: ['@commitlint/config-conventional'] };" > commitlint.config.js

   yarn

   yarn add --dev @commitlint/cli @commitlint/config-conventional @commitlint/prompt-cli
   
   echo "export default { extends: ['@commitlint/config-conventional'] };" > commitlint.config.js

   pnpm

   pnpm add --save-dev @commitlint/cli @commitlint/config-conventional @commitlint/prompt-cli
   
   echo "export default { extends: ['@commitlint/config-conventional'] };" > commitlint.config.js

   bun

   bun add --dev @commitlint/cli @commitlint/config-conventional @commitlint/prompt-cli
   
   echo "export default { extends: ['@commitlint/config-conventional'] };" > commitlint.config.js

   deno

   deno add --dev npm:@commitlint/cli npm:@commitlint/config-conventional npm:@commitlint/prompt-cli
   
   echo "export default { extends: ['@commitlint/config-conventional'] };" > commitlint.config.js

Provide a shortcut

To make prompt-cli easy to use, add a npm run-script to your package.json

{
  "scripts": {
    "commit": "commit"
  }
}

Test the prompt by executing

npm

git add .
npm run commit

yarn

git add .
yarn commit

pnpm

git add .
pnpm commit

bun

git add .
bun commit

deno

git add .
deno task commit

Use a config file from a custom path

By default the prompt picks up the configuration the same way commitlint does, starting from the current working directory. Pass --config (or -g) to load a specific file instead, just like with @commitlint/cli:

{
  "scripts": {
    "commit": "commit --config ./config/commitlint.config.js"
  }
}

Relative paths are resolved from the current working directory.

You can also pass the flag when running the script. With npm it has to come after --: otherwise npm takes --config and -g for options of its own, and the prompt silently uses the default config.

npm

npm run commit -- --config ./config/commitlint.config.js

yarn

yarn commit --config ./config/commitlint.config.js

pnpm

pnpm commit --config ./config/commitlint.config.js

bun

bun commit --config ./config/commitlint.config.js

An alternative to @commitlint/prompt-cli: commitizen

Another way to author commit messages that adhere to the commit convention configured in commitlint.config.js is to use commitizen. For more information, checkout their official website.

commitlint provides two adapters for commitizen:

1. @commitlint/prompt provides a way to interact same as @commitlint/prompt-cli
2. @commitlint/cz-commitlint is inspired by cz-conventional-changelog, it provides a more modern way to interact.