git-msg

GitHub →

git-msg reads your staged diff, current branch, and recent commit log, sends them to an LLM via a prompt template, and drops the generated message into an interactive TUI where you can confirm, edit inline, open $EDITOR, or abort — before anything is committed. It supports Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, and Ollama, and can install itself as a prepare-commit-msg git hook.

git-msg has no tagged release yet; this documents the current main. The build-time version is shown by git-msg --version.

git add .
git-msg generate

  Generated commit message:
  > Use as-is
    Edit inline
    Open $EDITOR
    Abort

feat(config): add XDG-compliant path resolution via internal/dirs

Install

brew tap madstone-tech/tap
brew install git-msg

Or with Go:

go install github.com/madstone-tech/git-msg@latest

Or download a binary from GitHub Releases.

First run

The first time you run any git-msg command, a setup wizard launches automatically:

  git-msg — first-run setup

  Select LLM provider
  > Anthropic (Claude)
    OpenAI (GPT)
    Google Gemini
    Ollama (local)

For cloud providers you choose a model and enter an API key. Keys are stored in the system keychain (service git-msg), never in config files. For Ollama, git-msg queries ollama list and presents a model picker.

Providers

Provider	Default model	API key required	Key env-var fallback
`anthropic`	`claude-haiku-4-5`	Yes	`GIT_MSG_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`
`openai`	`gpt-4o-mini`	Yes	`GIT_MSG_OPENAI_API_KEY`
`gemini`	`gemini-1.5-flash`	Yes	`GIT_MSG_GEMINI_API_KEY`
`ollama`	`llama3`	No	—

If no key is found in the keychain, git-msg falls back to the matching GIT_MSG_<PROVIDER>_API_KEY environment variable. Override the provider for a single run:

git-msg generate --provider ollama

Git hook integration

Install as a prepare-commit-msg hook so generation happens automatically on git commit:

git-msg hook install            # local repo
git-msg hook install --global   # globally via git core.hooksPath

Uninstall:

git-msg hook uninstall
git-msg hook uninstall --global

Configuration

Config file: ~/.config/mdstn/git-msg/config.toml (XDG path on all OSes; override the base with XDG_CONFIG_HOME). User prompt templates live in ~/.config/mdstn/git-msg/prompts/.

[provider]
name  = "anthropic"
model = "claude-haiku-4-5"

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

[prompt]
default = "conventional"

[hook]
global = false

Read and set values via the CLI:

git-msg config show
git-msg config get provider.model
git-msg config set provider.name ollama
git-msg config set provider.model llama3

Prompt templates

Templates use Jinja2-style syntax rendered by the ason engine (not literal Jinja2). git-msg ships one embedded template, conventional, following the Conventional Commits spec. Three variables are available: {{ diff }}, {{ branch }}, and {{ log }}.

git-msg prompt list
git-msg prompt show conventional
git-msg prompt edit my-template      # opens in $EDITOR
git-msg prompt reset conventional    # restore the embedded default

CLI reference

Command	Description
`git-msg generate`	Generate a commit message from the staged diff
`git-msg config show`	Print the full resolved configuration
`git-msg config get <key>`	Print one config value
`git-msg config set <key> <value>`	Set a config value
`git-msg prompt list`	List available prompt templates
`git-msg prompt show <name>`	Print a template
`git-msg prompt edit <name>`	Edit a template in `$EDITOR`
`git-msg prompt reset <name>`	Reset a template to its embedded default
`git-msg hook install`	Install the `prepare-commit-msg` hook (`--global` for git-wide)
`git-msg hook uninstall`	Remove the git hook (`--global` for git-wide)
`git-msg completion <bash\|zsh\|fish>`	Generate a shell completion script

Global flag: --version prints the build-time version.

generate flags:

Flag	Description
`--dry-run`	Print the generated message and skip the review TUI / commit
`--provider <name>`	Override the configured LLM provider for this run
`--template <name>`	Use a specific prompt template for this run