GitHub PR Title

Craft clear PR titles using conventional commits format.

CRITICAL: PR titles must follow conventional commit format. This drives release-please version automation and ensures consistent git history when using squash-and-merge.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when...	Use the alternative when...
Authoring a `type(scope): subject` PR title that drives release-please automation	Use `git-pr` for the full PR creation workflow (body, labels, reviewers)
Renaming an existing PR title to fix release-please version-bump detection	Use `git-commit-workflow` to set the same conventions on commit messages
Selecting the right `feat`, `fix`, `perf`, `refactor`, `chore` type for a PR	Use `github-issue-writing` for issue titles (different `[Type] Component:` format)
Validating PR title format before merge to maintain clean git history	Use `git-commit` to fix already-committed message formats locally

Format

<type>(<scope>): <subject>

See Conventional Commits Standards for comprehensive format guide.

Type Selection

Type	Use Case	Version Bump
`feat`	New feature	Minor
`fix`	Bug fix	Patch
`perf`	Performance improvement	Patch
`refactor`	Code restructure (no behavior change)	None
`docs`	Documentation only	None
`test`	Tests	None
`build`	Build/deps	None
`ci`	CI config	None
`chore`	Maintenance	None

Scope

The scope is required. The Conventional Commits spec lets you omit it; this house convention does not (.claude/rules/conventional-commits.md), and a squash-merge lands the PR title as the commit on main. Use the component or plugin the change touches:

feat(auth): add OAuth support
fix(api): handle null response
docs(readme): update install steps
refactor(core): simplify error handling

Discover repo scopes:

gh pr list --state merged -L 30 --json title | jq -r '.[].title' | grep -oE '\([^)]+\)' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn

Or from commits:

git log --format='%s' -n 50 | grep -oE '\([^)]+\)' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn

Subject

Imperative mood: "add" not "adds" or "added"
Lowercase: Start with lowercase after colon
No period: Don't end with punctuation
Under 50 chars: Keep concise

Examples:

❌ Bad	✅ Good
`Added login button`	`add login button`
`Fixes the bug.`	`fix null pointer in auth`
`Update`	`update dependencies`
`Resolved Performance Issues`	`improve query performance`

Breaking Changes

Append ! before colon:

feat(api)!: remove deprecated endpoints
fix!: require Node.js 18+
refactor(db)!: change schema format

Breaking changes trigger major version bumps.

Reverts

revert: feat(auth): add OAuth support

Quick Reference

Scenario	Template
Feature	`feat(<scope>): add <what>`
Bug fix	`fix(<scope>): resolve <what>`
Performance	`perf(<scope>): optimize <what>`
Docs	`docs(<scope>): update <what>`
Refactor	`refactor(<scope>): simplify <what>`
Deps	`build(deps): bump <pkg> to <ver>`
Breaking	`feat(<scope>)!: change <what>`

Why This Matters

Conventional commit PR titles ensure:

Accurate automation - release-please reads PR titles to determine version bumps
Clean git history - squash-and-merge uses PR title as commit message
Searchable commits - type prefix makes filtering easy
CHANGELOG accuracy - commits are grouped by type in generated changelogs

Agentic Optimizations

Context	Command
Get commits	`git log origin/main..HEAD --format='%s' -n 10`
Changed dirs	`git diff origin/main..HEAD --name-only \| xargs dirname \| sort -u`
Update title	`gh pr edit N --title "new title"`
Discover scopes	`gh pr list --state merged -L 30 --json title \| jq -r '.[].title' \| grep -oE '\([^)]+\)' \| sort \| uniq`

Reference

For detailed rules, patterns, and troubleshooting, see Conventional Commits Standards.

github-pr-title