Commit Description as a Thinking Tool
The author argues that writing detailed commit descriptions is a vital thinking tool that helps developers reflect on their code and decisions. They express concern that AI-generated commit messages often lack the necessary context regarding the 'why' behind code changes.
Why it matters
As AI-assisted coding becomes standard, maintaining human-readable documentation and reasoning is becoming a significant challenge for software maintainability.
2026-09-30 Software Development #thoughts #agentic-coding
Before the AI era, I wrote pretty long commit descriptions (or commit bodies) for major changes. It took me about five to ten minutes to draft and reread them to make sure I didn’t miss anything important. I did that for several reasons.
I wanted to include all the useful information so readers wouldn’t have to hunt for it in multiple places.
I wanted to explain what and, more importantly, why. The “what” summarizes the changes that are generally self-explanatory, but it gives a starting point for explaining the “why.”
Sometimes, I write it in first person, like I am drafting a message for someone: “I did this because…”, “I am doing this until we…” etc. I then go ahead and explain why, so that it is easier for others, and most importantly for my future self, to understand why we made that change.
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