5 ms·

Good point. The purpose of git-rewrite-commits isn’t to "polish" history or rewrite meaning, it’s more of a rescue tool for those chaotic early stages of side p

by fka 10mo ago

Good point. The purpose of git-rewrite-commits isn’t to "polish" history or rewrite meaning, it’s more of a rescue tool for those chaotic early stages of side projects (like mine) where commits are basically "update again" for months. In those cases, the "intent" was never recorded in the first place, so the AI is just giving some structure and readability to what’s already lost context. It’s not about pretending the repo was well maintained, it’s about making messy histories a bit more understandable for humans (and future me) without rewriting the actual code or meaning.

MangoToupe 10mo ago
I think that's perfectly fine on a branch. I don't see this being deploying on the main branches of any projects of note.
- fka 10mo ago
  Agreed! I've already added several warnings and disclaimers to the README :) It's really meant to be a "use it once or twice in your lifetime" kind of tool, not something to run on every project. Actually, mostly shouldn't.
cube00 10mo ago
> those chaotic early stages of side projects (like mine) where commits are basically "update again" for months. I don't accept "chaotic early stages of side projects" is a justification for skipping out on writing good quality commit messages. It wouldn't be acceptable in a well managed company so I don't understand why side projects would get a pass to become sloppy. It's your side project and you're free to skip writing commit messages, but you need to own that decision and not blame "those chaotic early stages" I've found taking the time to write good commit messages helps me as I can see what I've tried previously and pull out any older versions if I've found a new direction isn't working for me. It also captures my thought process in case I'm tempted to repeat the sins of the past.
- jghn 10mo ago
  Not all git messages are equal. My $0.02 is that commit messages I write are for other people. Until I officially hand a branch over for other people's consumption, like a PR, if I'm committing the only reason is because I want to access my code on another machine. I'll put whatever junk I please in those commit messages. But then before I open a PR I'll collapse everything down into 1+ commits each with curated content and appropriate messages.
  - cube00 10mo ago
    > My $0.02 is that commit messages I write are for other people. I write them for my future self. In this context we're talking about a side project which presumably won't have a PR where the commit messages are cleaned up (at least I don't do PRs for my own side projects). If I'm on a branch then I will write junk commits and clean them up before merging to main if I actually manage to get the feature right.
  - accoil 10mo ago
    This project shows that git messages aren't just for other people as it's an attempt to make terrible messages usable for the person who wrote the code in the first place.
- milkey_mouse 10mo ago
  > It wouldn't be acceptable in a well managed company so I don't understand why side projects would get a pass to become sloppy. Because no one's paying you, and you owe your users nothing?
  - deleted 10mo ago
    [deleted]
  - cube00 10mo ago
    > Because no one's paying you While I'm certainly getting there, I'm not cynical enough to believe being paid is the only reason to take pride in the quality of your work.

by fka 10mo ago

MangoToupe 10mo ago

I think that's perfectly fine on a branch. I don't see this being deploying on the main branches of any projects of note.

fka 10mo ago
Agreed! I've already added several warnings and disclaimers to the README :) It's really meant to be a "use it once or twice in your lifetime" kind of tool, not something to run on every project. Actually, mostly shouldn't.

cube00 10mo ago

> those chaotic early stages of side projects (like mine) where commits are basically "update again" for months. I don't accept "chaotic early stages of side projects" is a justification for skipping out on writing good quality commit messages. It wouldn't be acceptable in a well managed company so I don't understand why side projects would get a pass to become sloppy. It's your side project and you're free to skip writing commit messages, but you need to own that decision and not blame "those chaotic early stages" I've found taking the time to write good commit messages helps me as I can see what I've tried previously and pull out any older versions if I've found a new direction isn't working for me. It also captures my thought process in case I'm tempted to repeat the sins of the past.

jghn 10mo ago
Not all git messages are equal. My $0.02 is that commit messages I write are for other people. Until I officially hand a branch over for other people's consumption, like a PR, if I'm committing the only reason is because I want to access my code on another machine. I'll put whatever junk I please in those commit messages. But then before I open a PR I'll collapse everything down into 1+ commits each with curated content and appropriate messages.
- cube00 10mo ago
  > My $0.02 is that commit messages I write are for other people. I write them for my future self. In this context we're talking about a side project which presumably won't have a PR where the commit messages are cleaned up (at least I don't do PRs for my own side projects). If I'm on a branch then I will write junk commits and clean them up before merging to main if I actually manage to get the feature right.
- accoil 10mo ago
  This project shows that git messages aren't just for other people as it's an attempt to make terrible messages usable for the person who wrote the code in the first place.
milkey_mouse 10mo ago
> It wouldn't be acceptable in a well managed company so I don't understand why side projects would get a pass to become sloppy. Because no one's paying you, and you owe your users nothing?
- deleted 10mo ago
  [deleted]
- cube00 10mo ago
  > Because no one's paying you While I'm certainly getting there, I'm not cynical enough to believe being paid is the only reason to take pride in the quality of your work.