manifest-commit - SKILL.md Agent Skill

name: manifest-commit description: Write knowledge-transfer git commits for Manifest projects. Use when making git commits. Commits include a typed subject line and a detailed body explaining what changed, why, and how.

Manifest Commit

Write a git commit for the current changes. In Manifest, commits are knowledge transfer — the primary way agents and humans understand what happened and why.

Format

<type>(<scope>): <summary>

type REQUIRED. feat, fix, docs, refactor, chore, test, perf.
scope OPTIONAL. The area affected: a feature name, manifest, cli, config, etc.
summary REQUIRED. Imperative, <= 72 chars, no trailing period.

The Body Is Not Optional

Every commit gets a body unless it's a one-character typo fix. The body is how the next agent learns what you did. Write it for someone (or something) reading git log weeks from now with no other context.

What to include:

What changed — which files, which behaviors, what's different now
Why it changed — the reasoning, the problem it solves, the context that led here
How it was done — the approach, key decisions, tradeoffs considered
Migration notes — if this change requires other files to be updated, say so explicitly. Name the files. If the change is large, point to a plan: See .pi/plans/2026-02-15-feature.md
What was NOT done — if you deliberately left something out or chose not to change something related, note it so the next person doesn't wonder

Example — feature:

feat(auth): add JWT token validation with RS256 signatures

Tokens are parsed and verified in a single pass to avoid double
deserialization. Invalid tokens return structured error responses
with specific failure reasons (expired, malformed, bad signature)
to help client-side debugging.

Expiry tolerance is 30s by default to account for clock skew.
This is configurable via config/manifest.ts `jwtExpiryTolerance`.

Files: manifest/server.ts (auth check in request handler),
       services/jwt.ts (new), features/Login.ts (updated to
       return token), config/manifest.ts (new jwt fields).

Example — bug fix:

fix(registration): handle null displayName from OAuth providers

OAuth providers can omit the display name field entirely. The
registration feature assumed it was always present because the
input schema marks it required — but OAuth-sourced registrations
bypass input validation and pass data directly.

Added nullish coalescing with fallback to email username part.
This only affects the OAuth code path; normal registration still
validates displayName as required.

Root cause: features/UserRegistration.ts line 34 accessed
input.displayName without a null check in the OAuth branch.

Example — framework update from upstream:

chore: cherry-pick framework updates from manifest branch

Cherry-picked from manifest branch (manifest-sync-2026-02-15..HEAD):

Picked:
- abc1234 feat(router): add wildcard route matching
- def5678 fix(validator): handle nested object validation

Skipped:
- ghi9012 feat(extensions): add blog extension (not relevant to this project)

Adapted:
- abc1234 (router): upstream added wildcard routes. Adapted to coexist
  with our prefix-based tenant routing (services/tenantRouter.ts).

All tests pass. tsc clean. manifest check clean.

Steps

Run git status and git diff --staged (or git diff if nothing staged) to understand the changes.
Read the changed files to understand context — don't just describe the diff, explain the intent.
Check git log -n 20 --pretty=format:"%s" to match the project's existing scope conventions.
If it's unclear which files should be included, ask.
Stage the files: git add <files> (all changes if none specified).
Commit: git commit -m "<subject>" -m "<body>"
Do NOT push. Only commit.

What Makes a Manifest Commit Different

In most projects, commit messages are an afterthought. In Manifest, they're infrastructure. The commit history is:

How agents orient. An agent reads git log to understand what happened recently, what's been fixed, what's been changed. Vague messages like "fix stuff" or "update" are dead ends.
How upstream updates work. When someone runs the manifest-update skill, the agent reads upstream commits, batches them, and recommends what to cherry-pick. Your commit messages are what the agent reads to understand each change.
How debugging works. When something breaks, git log --oneline -- features/UserRegistration.ts shows exactly what changed and why. Good messages make git bisect unnecessary.

A commit message in Manifest is not a description of what you typed. It's a letter to the next agent explaining what you did and why.