Commit message guidelines (CI-enforced)

These align with the gitlint rules run in CI.

Subject (first line)

• Max 72 characters.
• Use imperative mood when reasonable (e.g., "Fix crash on startup").
• No trailing punctuation (e.g., don't end with a period).
• No tabs, no leading/trailing whitespace.

Body (optional)

• Blank line after the subject.
• Wrap lines at 80 characters.
• Explain what and why over how; link issues like "Fixes #1234" when applicable.
• No hard tabs, no trailing whitespace.
• Gitlint ignores the B1 body-length rule for generated agent metadata lines such as the Agent-Logs-Url: footer and the Copilot Autofix co-author line.

Helpful commands (Windows PowerShell)

python -m pip install --upgrade gitlint
git fetch origin
gitlint --ignore body-is-missing --commits origin/<base>..

Replace <base> with your target branch (e.g., release/9.3, develop).

Common examples

• Good: "Refactor XCore event dispatch to avoid deadlock"
• Good: "Fix: avoid trailing whitespace in generated XSLT layouts"
• Avoid: "Fixes stuff." (too vague, trailing period)
• Avoid: "WIP: temp" (unclear intent, typically avoided in shared history)