Skip to content

cli-reference.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
242 lines (162 loc) · 4.85 KB

cli-reference.md

File metadata and controls

242 lines (162 loc) · 4.85 KB

CLI Reference

Complete reference for all git-msg commands and flags.

Global flags

These flags are available on every command:

Flag Description
-h, --help Show help for the command
-v, --version Print the version string and exit

git-msg generate

Generate a commit message from the current staged diff.

git-msg generate [flags]

Flags

Flag Type Description
--dry-run bool Print the generated message to stdout without committing or showing the review TUI
--provider NAME string Override the configured provider for this run only (anthropic, openai, gemini, ollama)
--template NAME string Override the configured default template for this run only

Behaviour

  1. Loads config from ~/.config/mdstn/git-msg/config.toml
  2. Collects git diff --cached, current branch, and last 5 commits
  3. Renders the prompt template with the collected context
  4. Calls the configured LLM provider
  5. Shows the review TUI (unless --dry-run)
  6. On confirm: runs git commit -m <message>

Examples

# Standard generation with review
git-msg generate

# Preview without committing
git-msg generate --dry-run

# Use Ollama for this commit only
git-msg generate --provider ollama

# Use a custom template for this commit only
git-msg generate --template jira

Exit codes

Code Meaning
0 Success, or user aborted (no commit was made)
1 Error (no staged changes, provider failure, config missing)

git-msg config

Manage git-msg configuration.

git-msg config set KEY VALUE

Set a configuration value.

git-msg config set KEY VALUE

Supported keys:

Key Example value
provider.name ollama
provider.model fast-coder:latest
ollama.host http://localhost:11434
prompt.default conventional
hook.global true 
git-msg config set provider.name anthropic
git-msg config set provider.model claude-sonnet-4-5

git-msg config get KEY

Print the current value of a config key.

git-msg config get provider.name
# anthropic

git-msg config show

Print the full resolved configuration as TOML.

git-msg config show
[provider]
  name = 'anthropic'
  model = 'claude-haiku-4-5'

[ollama]
  host = 'http://localhost:11434'

[prompt]
  default = 'conventional'

[hook]
  global = false

API keys are never included in this output.

git-msg prompt

Manage prompt templates.

git-msg prompt list

List all available templates and their source.

git-msg prompt list
  conventional         [embedded]
  jira                 [user]
  • [embedded] — built-in template shipped with git-msg
  • [user] — user-defined template in ~/.config/mdstn/git-msg/prompts/

git-msg prompt show NAME

Print the full content of a template.

git-msg prompt show conventional

git-msg prompt edit NAME

Open a template in $EDITOR for editing. If no user override exists, the embedded default is pre-loaded.

git-msg prompt edit conventional

Requires $EDITOR to be set. On save, the result is written to ~/.config/mdstn/git-msg/prompts/<name>.toml.

git-msg prompt reset NAME

Delete the user override for a template, restoring the embedded default. Exits 0 if no override exists.

git-msg prompt reset conventional

git-msg hook

Manage the prepare-commit-msg git hook lifecycle.

git-msg hook install

Install the hook into the current repository's .git/hooks/ directory.

git-msg hook install [--global]
Flag Description
--global Install into the directory specified by git config core.hooksPath instead

The installed script exits silently when no TTY is available, so it does not block non-interactive flows.

git-msg hook uninstall

Remove the prepare-commit-msg hook.

git-msg hook uninstall [--global]
Flag Description
--global Remove from the global hooks path

Exits 0 if the hook file does not exist.

git-msg completion

Generate shell completion scripts.

# bash
git-msg completion bash > /etc/bash_completion.d/git-msg

# zsh
git-msg completion zsh > "${fpath[1]}/_git-msg"

# fish
git-msg completion fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/git-msg.fish

Environment variables

Variable Description
XDG_CONFIG_HOME Override the base config directory (default: ~/.config)
EDITOR Editor used by prompt edit and the "Open $EDITOR" review option
GIT_MSG_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY Anthropic API key (fallback if not in keychain)
GIT_MSG_OPENAI_API_KEY OpenAI API key (fallback if not in keychain)
GIT_MSG_GEMINI_API_KEY Google Gemini API key (fallback if not in keychain)