Commit Convention

G-RANK follows the Conventional Commits specification for all commit messages. This makes the history readable, enables automated changelogs, and clearly communicates intent.

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Format

<type>(<optional scope>): <description>

[optional body]

[optional footer]

• type — what kind of change this is (required)
• scope — what part of the codebase changed (optional but encouraged)
• description — short imperative summary, lowercase, no period at the end
• body — longer explanation if needed (why, not what)
• footer — breaking changes, issue references

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Types

Type	When to Use	Example
feat	A new feature	feat(auth): add email verification flow
fix	A bug fix	fix(lobby): prevent duplicate join on double-click
docs	Documentation changes	docs: update API endpoints reference
refactor	Code restructuring (no behavior change)	refactor(mmr): extract tier config to constants
test	Adding or updating tests	test(auth): add unit tests for login controller
chore	Build, CI, dependency updates	chore: update mongoose to 9.2.0
style	Formatting, whitespace, no logic change	style: apply prettier formatting
perf	Performance improvements	perf(leaderboard): add mmr index to users collection
ci	CI/CD configuration changes	ci: add GitHub Actions workflow for testing
revert	Reverts a previous commit	revert: feat(auth): revert OAuth implementation

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Real Examples from the Repository

feat: add MMR calculation service with tier-based gain/loss rates
fix: update authentication error handling and improve user feedback in login process
fix: update .gitignore to include coverage directory and ensure .env is ignored
fix: update getAllLobbies test to include pagination parameters in API call
test: add unit tests for models, routes, and services

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Scopes (Recommended)

Use scopes to clarify which part of the system changed:

Scope	Covers
auth	Authentication, registration, JWT
lobby	Lobby creation, status management
participant	Lobby participant join/leave
match	Match result submission
mmr	MMR calculation, ranking
riot	Riot Games API integration
admin	Admin panel
leaderboard	Leaderboard query
frontend	Frontend-only changes
backend	Backend-only changes
docs	Documentation
deps	Dependency updates

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Breaking Changes

If a commit introduces a breaking change (e.g., API contract change, DB schema change), indicate it in the footer:

feat(auth)!: change JWT cookie name from 'jwt' to 'token'

BREAKING CHANGE: Clients storing or referencing the old cookie name 'jwt'
must update to 'token'. All existing sessions will be invalidated.

The ! after the type also signals a breaking change at a glance.

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Why Conventional Commits?

1. Readable history — git log --oneline tells a clear story of changes.
2. Automated changelogs — tools like conventional-changelog or release-it can generate changelogs automatically.
3. Semantic versioning — feat → minor bump, fix → patch, breaking change → major.
4. PR descriptions — well-structured commits make PR summaries easier to write.

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Git Tips

# View recent commits with conventional format
git log --oneline -20

# Amend the last commit message (before pushing)
git commit --amend -m "fix(auth): correct token expiry calculation"

# Interactive rebase to clean up commits before PR
git rebase -i HEAD~5