AI can write your code, but only you can write the commit message
Commit Description as a Thinking Tool
Before AI, I wrote long commit descriptions to explain the what and why, a process that forced me to reflect on my code. Now agents write both code and commits, but they often fabricate the why when context is missing. I still write commit messages myself—it's how I verify I understand what I'm shipping and capture temporary decisions with exit criteria.
If you cannot explain it, you did not understand it. The commit description again works here as a thinking tool.
- WD-42
Writing is thinking in every situation, not just limited to commit messages. This is a fact that I'm concerned people are forgetting, or worse never understood to begin with.
- dkarl
I was forced to give up on commit messages long before AI, because other people were so bad at them that I happily agreed that all PRs should squash commits.
At least then the squashed messages were usually pretty decent. But then people started using AI (or AI started using people) to create absolutely massive commit messages that are impossible to skim in git blame and overall very bad for human consumption.
AI has made massive strides in virtually every other way. Why do they continue to write in a wasteful, human-hostile way?
I think we'd have to be be very naive not to suspect that this is intentional. AI companies have a stated goal of replacing humans in the software development process, and they're actively making the process itself inhospitable for humans.
They are injecting massive amounts of text into their customers' development process, which then becomes tokens that their customers will then pay them to process over and over again. It's like a CO2 scrubber that emits CO2.
- kccqzy
Long ago I changed the default commit message to include headers “Why?” and “How?” to remind myself that I need to explain why a change is made (what this article focuses on), and how it is made (different implementation approaches considered). I followed this format for a long time. I was in the top 1% for commit message length at the company.
Tangent: I once worried about things breaking when commit messages got too long. I tried really long commit messages and nothing broke: https://github.com/kccqzy/long-commit-messages/commit/ccfda4...
- arialdomartini
On top of this, it pays off to write the commit messages before the code
https://arialdomartini.github.io/pre-emptive-commit-comments
- evnp
> When the AI doesn’t know the ‘why’ part, it comes up with its own reasoning. I find that dangerous. When we read that later, it may not make sense, because the real reason was completely different.
Even more dangerous: when the text _does_ make sense, despite being detached from reality.