🚀 Customizing GitHub Copilot & GitLens for AI-Assisted Commit Messages 🧠💡

Commit messages are essential for maintaining a clean, understandable project history. With GitHub Copilot 🤖 and GitLens 🔍, you can automate commit message generation with AI assistance, ensuring they are concise, meaningful, and well-structured.

🎯 Why Automate Commit Messages?

Commit messages should be clear and concise 📝. They provide context for changes and enhance team collaboration. But writing good messages every time? Tedious! 😵‍💫

This is where GitHub Copilot and GitLens step in! 🚀 These AI-powered tools help automate commit message generation while following best practices ✅.

🛠 Tools You'll Need:

🔹 GitHub Copilot – Powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4, suggests and generates commit messages based on your changes.
🔹 GitLens – A powerful Git extension for Visual Studio Code, enhancing your Git workflow with AI-generated commit messages.

⚙️ Setting Up GitHub Copilot & GitLens

1️⃣ Install GitHub Copilot 🤖
1️⃣ Open VSCode.
2️⃣ Navigate to the Extensions view(Ctrl + Shift + X or Cmd + Shift + X).
3️⃣ Search for "GitHub Copilot" and install it.
4️⃣ Sign in with your GitHub account.

2️⃣ Install GitLens 🔍
1️⃣ Open VSCode.
2️⃣ Go to the Extensions view.
3️⃣ Search for "GitLens" and install it.
4️⃣ GitLens will automatically integrate with your Git workflow in VSCode.

🛠 Configure Commit Message Generation ⚡️

3️⃣ Create .copilot-commit-message-instructions.md 📜
This file provides commit message rules for GitHub Copilot. Place it in the root of your project.

***📌 Example Instructions:*

GitHub Copilot Commit Message Instructions 🚀

General Guidelines:

✅ Use the imperative mood (e.g., "Add feature" instead of "Added feature").

✅ Be concise and clear – avoid overly detailed explanations.

✅ Follow standard commit types:

• feat: 🚀 For new features
• fix: 🐛 For bug fixes
• refactor: 🔄 For restructuring code without behavior changes
• style: 🎨 For cosmetic changes
• perf: ⚡ For performance improvements
• test: 🧪 For adding/updating tests

📌 Examples:

• feat(auth): add two-factor authentication 🔐
• fix(ui): correct button hover effect 🎨
• refactor(api): optimize database queries 🚀
• style(css): update button styles 💅 **

4️⃣ Configuresettings.json ⚙️

"git.enableSmartCommit": true

🔍 Test & Verify Commit Message Generation 🎯

1️⃣ Make a change (e.g., add a feature or fix a bug).
2️⃣ Open Source Control(Ctrl + Shift + G / Cmd + Shift + G).
3️⃣ Commit your changes – Copilot will suggest a commit message based on the changes.
4️⃣ Review & refine the message if necessary.

If commit messages don’t meet expectations, tweak .copilot-commit-message-instructions.md✍️.

🛠 Troubleshooting Tips 🔧

🔹 No commit messages? – Ensure .copilot-commit-message-instructions.md is in the root of your project.
🔹 Messages too verbose? – Simplify the instructions to focus on clarity and conciseness.
🔹 VSCode doesn’t suggest commits? – Restart VSCode and check Copilot authentication.

🚀 Conclusion

By integrating GitHub Copilot 🤖 and GitLens 🔍, you can automate commit messages, making them consistent and efficient. This saves time, reduces human error, and keeps your commit history clean & structured 📜.

Now, every commit tells a story—without the extra effort! 🎯🚀